A One-House Legislature: Thirty-Four Days, Five Laws
The fourth Washington legislature had burned more than half its allotted time and signed just five bills into law—because each chamber ignored the other's work.
Olympia, Feb. 17.—Special. The fourth Washington legislature has been in session 34 out of the 60 days allotted to it by the constitution. During that time the senate has passed 18 bills and the house 29, and seven bills in addition to those have passed both houses, of which latter five have been signed by the governor. This is an average of a little over a bill a week. The 18 bills that have passed the senate have not passed the house, and the same is true in the senate of the 29 bills that have passed the house. It has so far been a one-house legislature, each acting on its own bills and delaying those of the other house.
“It has so far been a one-house legislature, each acting on its own bills and delaying those of the other house.”
A state legislature that passes bills in one chamber and lets them die in the other, with barely a handful of laws to show for two-thirds of a session, is a picture Washingtonians would recognize from any number of modern sessions. The complaint—that the two houses cannot get out of each other's way—is more than a century old and shows no sign of aging.
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