(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Feb. 9, 2015)
Remember those times when you thought you were being made fun of?
When maybe someone at the table says, “No, I wanted the salt, that’s the white stuff…” or a friend says, “Never mind, I was hoping to borrow a comb, but a guy like you probably doesn’t have one…”
Well, that’s happening with more frequency in the Kansas Legislature now days.
It’s called titling a bill, not just saying what it proposes to do, but giving the measure a title that makes it sound important. Or, maybe it is just to make the bill something that a legislator has to think twice about voting against, because its title is catchy enough that you don’t want it showing up on a campaign ad by your opponent next year.
It’s part art, part science, but that naming of bills has become more frequent.
For example, chances are slim that a political foe is going to tout on his/her palm card that you voted against Senate Bill 166. But, anyone imagine that if a legislator voted against the “Rule of Law Restoration Act” that the same piece of paper isn’t going to show up on the campaign trail?
Who’s against the rule of law? Who wants voting against that on his/her permanent record?
Well, it turns out the Rule of Law Restoration Act is largely a slap at President Barack Obama and his stance on immigration, for not deporting undocumented people from being in and working in the United States. The rule of law is all about immigration policy, which even the governor says is largely a federal issue that states can’t do much about.
But that rule of law—and there is still debate about whether Obama can order his Department of Justice to not enforce federal immigration law—gets interesting when the Kansas Legislature starts considering its ability to enforce that rule of law.
The bill in the Kansas Legislature slaps at Obama, of course, but brings immigration law to the Statehouse.
Its provisions would prohibit Kansas businesses from hiring an alien who doesn’t have specific documented permission to be in the country—or who is just not deported because of the Obama administration’s actions which defer the deportation.
The kicker here might be that no Kansas business could deduct as a cost of doing business the salary or wages of any of those undocumented workers they hire. That’s when, we suspect, things get pretty serious for the business community. Oh, and those persons “not lawfully present” in the U.S. can’t be issued Kansas driver’s licenses, which presumably means that they aren’t going to have auto insurance, either, should they get in a wreck with a “lawfully present” Kansan.
So, that’s what the Rule of Law Restoration Act is all about. Not immigration, not workers, not driving, it’s the rule of law, being restored by the Kansas Legislature.
Wonder about those other bills that authors have given titles to? How about the “Cannabis Compassionate Care Act”—that’s medical marijuana—or the “Police and Citizens Protection Act,” which is body cameras on police.
And, don’t forget the gruesomely, maybe cleverly, named “Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act”—basically an antiabortion bill with a hard-to-vote-against name, or last session’s Religious Freedom Act, which passed the House and died in the Senate that would have allowed businesses to refuse to do business with same-sex couples.
These cleverly titled bills—no, make that “acts”—are increasing in number. Powerful political titles, and if you aren’t paying attention, well, your legislator voted for something that doesn’t necessarily do what it sounds like…or is afraid to vote against something that is exactly what it sounds like.
That makes the right question “what does it do?”—not what is it named…