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National Resources Committee 



general importance, at least, could be worked out and 

 embodied in properly drafted bill form before the con- 

 vening of the legislature; or, to state this another way, 

 if the legislature, upon convening could liave before it 

 something in the nature of a legislative program em- 

 bodied in drafted bills upon which it could immediately 

 begin work. 



By far the most interesting attempt to meet this need 

 has been the creation, in recent yeai-s, by certain States, 

 of what are known as legislative councils, the prime, if 

 not the exclusive, function of which is to formulate, in 

 advance of the meeting of the legislature, a legislative 

 program and to draft the bills for putting such 

 program into execution. 



The proposal for the creation of a body of this char- 

 acter found first expression in the model State consti- 

 tution drafted under the auspices of the National 

 Municipal League and published by it in 1927. In- 

 cluded in that draft were provisions for the creation 

 of a legislative council to be composed of members of 

 the two chambers elected by the process of proportional 

 representation with the single transferable vote, wlaich 

 members, acting with the governor, should have as 

 their duties : 



To collect mformation concerning the government and gen- 

 eral welfare of the State and to report thereon to the legisla- 

 ture. Measures for proposed legislation may be submitted to 

 it at any time and shall be considered and reported to the legis- 

 lature with its recommendations thereon. The Legislative 

 Council may also prepare such legislation and make such 

 recommendations thereon to the legislature in the form of bills, 

 or otherwise, as, in its opinion, the welfare of the State may 

 require. 



This recommendation has been acted upon by eight 

 of the States,^* the initiative being taken by Wisconsin, 

 in 1931. Of these, the council created by Kansas in 

 1933 has been especially active, and a brief account of 

 its organization and work will serve as an exposition 

 of the nature and operation of these bodies generally. 



The Kansas Legislative Council is composed of 27 

 members : 10 senators and 15 representatives, appointed 

 by the presiding officers respectively of the two 

 Houses, and approved by a majority vote of the mem- 

 bers of each; the President of the Senate, who is ex- 

 officio chairman of the Council, and the Speaker of the 

 House who is ex-officio vice chairman of the Council. 

 To ensure that the Coimcil will, as far as practicable, 

 have a non-partisan character, the act creating the 

 Council provides that : 



The party representation on the Council shall be in proportion 

 generally to the relative numbers of the two major parties In 

 each House, but, in no event, shall the majority party in either 

 House be represented by more than two-thirds of the members 

 of said CouncU from either House. 



To quote the Director of the Research Department of 

 the Council, Dr. Frederic H. Guild : " 



The Kansas CouncU was created to collect information con- 

 cerning the government and general welfare of the State and to 

 prepare a legislative program, in the form of bills or other- 

 wise, for the regular session of the legislature. In consequence, 

 it is, in fact, a general interim committee authorized to investi- 

 gate or study any important issue of public policy or question 

 of State-wide interest. Its second and fundamental function, 

 that of preparing a legislative program, is dependent upon 

 proper exercise of the first function. 



In carrying out its dual function, the Coimcil has 

 organized a research staff which is an investigative 

 body analogous to a legislative reference service and 

 which has prepared and published in mimeographed 

 form numerous bulletins bearing upon matters likely 

 to become the subjects of legislation, while the Council 

 itself holds quarterly meetings for the development of 

 its legislative program. 



As regards the manner in which the council has 

 actually functioned, as a program drafting agency, Dr. 

 Guild, in his bulletin, states that the council "has been 

 definitely more successful" than has similar work in 

 the past ; that 60 percent of the council's bills became 

 laws in 1933 special session and that 26 council 

 bills were passed at the regular session. 



In considering the composition and character of 

 duties that should be assigned to an agency of this 

 kind, the most important problem presented is that of 

 determining the relations that shall exist between it 

 and the governor. As is well known, a marked feature 

 of recent political development in the United States 

 has been the increasing extent to which American chief 

 executives have deemed it to be one of their prime re- 

 sponsibilities to formulate a legislative program and 

 to use the powers of their office and those derived from 

 their positions as heads of their political parties to 

 secure affii'mative action upon such programs, a de- 

 velopment T7hich has, in general, received the endorse- 

 ment of the American people and which has been 

 welcomed by most students of American political 

 institutions and conditions. 



In view of this, it is apparent that, imless proper 

 precautions are taken, the creation of legislative coun- 

 cils as legislative program formulating bodies may 

 run counter to this development and result in the leg- 

 islature being confronted with two legislative pro- 

 grams: one formulated by its own council and the 

 other by the governor. This situation can be met 

 either by making the governor a member of the 

 coimcil or, preferably, by the council, as a matter of 

 policy, working in close cooperation with the governor. 

 It would appear that these considerations have been 



*» Connecticut. Illinois. Kaiisa-s. Kentucky, Micbigan, Nebraska, Vir- 

 ginia, Wisconsin. 



*> Kansas Experiment with a Legislative Council : Estimate of Accom- 

 plishments, May 15, 1933, to March 27, 1936. Hesearch Department, 

 Kansas Legislative CouncU, Bulletin No. 42, 1936. 



