Unfinished Business

The Brennan Center released today Unfinished Business: New York Legislative Reform, a 2006 update to The New York State Legislative Process: An Evaluation and Blueprint for Reform. The report details the reforms made to the legislative rules of the Senate and Assembly and documents the impact those rules changes have had in practice. The report recommends the most essential reforms that must be implemented in order to create a functioning legislative branch in New York.

The release of the original report helped spur a call for reform that reverberated across the state. All of New York’s major daily newspapers, from upstate and downstate, used their editorial pages to call the public's attention to the report's findings. More than 30 organizations from across the political spectrum endorsed our package of reforms.

It is again time to put pressure on lawmakers to reform New York's broken legislature. In January 2007, legislators will have the opportunity to adopt a set of new set of operating rules that will create a more transparent, accountable, deliberative, representative, and accountable legislative process.

Visit our webpage detailing our work to reform the New York state legislature.

Categories: General, Legislative Rules