by Karl Kurtz
Our online poll in The Thicket relating to a posting about the powers of legislative committees, "Should legislative committees have the power to kill bills on their own, or should they be required to report all actions to the chamber?" drew 130 responses. 79 respondents (61%) said that committees should be able to kill bills on their own, while 39 (39%) said that committees should have to report their actions to the chamber as a whole.
Without having any way of knowing, my best guess would be that the great majority who support the ability of committees to make decisions without approval of the body as a whole were legislative insiders--legislators and staff who see lots of bad legislation and want the system to be efficient as possible. Readers outside the legislature are more likely to favor a more accountable and democratic legislature in which a small group cannot act on behalf of the entire chamber.
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