The Red and Black

The 2004 election completed the Republican takeover of Georgia state government as Republicans won a majority of the House.

During the last two years, divided government limited Republicans' ability to achieve their policy objectives. Now, if they fail to enact their agenda, it will be because of dissension in their own ranks.

Speaker Glenn Richardson has acted preemptively to preclude the potential that disagreements in the House could derail Gov. Sonny Perdue's initiatives.

Power always has been centralized in the General Assembly. Up until 1967 the governor dominated not only the executive but also the legislative branch, naming committee chairs and hand-picking the speaker of the House.

Since the House achieved the power to choose its leadership the speaker has dominated the chamber. The ability of former Speaker Tom Murphy to achieve his objectives was legendary.

Now under the first Republican speaker in six generations, the House has changed procedures to help the new leadership control the policy-making process.

The Rules Committee has been beefed up, using as a model the committee of the same name in the U.S. House.

Like its analogue at the national level, the state House Rules Committee can now set time limits for debating legislation on the floor of the House. It also has the authority to issue a closed rule which prohibits floor amendments to legislation.

Not only can the Rules Committee schedule legislation, it can rewrite bills if the speaker disagrees with the version crafted by the substantive committee that reported the bill.

But another change -- not rooted in practices of the U.S. House -- should make it unlikely the Rules Committee will find the output of substantive committees unacceptable.

The most controversial rules change creates a set of "hawks" -- a name not selected in deference to Atlanta's painfully inept basketball franchise.

These House hawks can be thought of as functioning like jokers in poker. The speaker can send them to a committee hearing if it appears that the committee might take a stand opposed by the speaker.

The hawks can swoop in and, although not members of the committee, vote on the legislation under consideration. If some Republicans on the committee are leaning toward voting with the minority Democrats, the hawks could reverse the stand favored by a majority of the committee.

Under Speaker Murphy, the leadership usually achieved its preferences but did so without having to rely on loyalists who could be inserted into committee deliberations.

Murphy's gravitas could bend committees to his will. To bring a rebellious committee into line, all he needed to do was to appear at the back of the hearing room and watch, chomping on his cigar.

The mere presence of the Speaker who had banished one-time rival Al Burruss for years, whose support was absolutely essential to the enactment of any bill, who controlled access to pork barrel projects, sufficed to get legislators to do his bidding.

Speaker Glenn Richardson, new to the task of leading the 180-member House, lacks the aura and the exchange of favors that Murphy acquired during his 42 years in the House and almost quarter century as its leader.

With the new rules, Richardson should be able to achieve his -- and the Governor's -- policy preferences.

Speaker Richardson is positioned to ensure that the House will vote on proposals that in the past Democrats held in committees.

Among the bills likely to reach the House floor for the first time are the requirement of a 24-hour delay before a woman can get an abortion, the Governor's ethics proposals and tort reform.

The new rules do not increase the centralization of power in the House. But they do make the lines of influence more obvious.

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