Council Broadly Interprets 'Emergency'

Citing Lack of Autonomy, Members Invoke Legislative Rule -- Too Often, Some Say

How does a bill become a law? In the D.C. Council, it often happens by emergency.

Council members frequently fast-track legislation by invoking rules allowing them to declare "emergency" circumstances in which bills can take effect without public comment.

About one-fourth of the bills before the D.C. Council became law this way during the current two-year legislative session, including a package of anti-crime measures that alarmed civil rights groups and contentious legislation authorizing pricey parking garages for the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium.

At last Tuesday's meeting, legislators determined emergencies existed to pay multimillion dollar sums to mental health and developmental disabilities contractors, to authorize tax breaks and to move forward on a public-private partnership to build a controversial economic development project.

A $48,000 pay raise for the mayor and the council chairman first came to the council as emergency legislation but was withdrawn after several council members noted the lack of public scrutiny. Permanent pay raise legislation received preliminary approval last week after public hearings.

Emergency bills need nine affirmative votes instead of a simple majority of seven, making enactment a little harder to come by. The payoff is worth it, though, because emergency bills are enacted immediately and remain in effect for up to 90 days without congressional approval. They are usually coupled with temporary bills that last up to 225 days and permanent versions that go through the full legislative process.

Council members said they sometimes resort to emergency declarations because the city lacks legislative autonomy.

According to the District's Home Rule Act, legislation passed by the council needs approval from Capitol Hill before permanently becoming law. When federal overseers take their time giving consent, creating a potential gap in coverage of a law, that creates the need for another type of legislation: a congressional review emergency, which allows a measure to stay in effect while a permanent version awaits congressional approval.

The council passed more than 100 of those this session.

As part of the transition before he takes office Jan. 2, incoming Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) is scrutinizing council procedures, including how many times emergencies are declared. Changes Gray is considering involve electronic voting on the council dais, the creation of council news conferences and possibly ending members' breakfast meetings before legislative sessions, according to several groups Gray has consulted.

The council's reliance on emergency legislation was highlighted by the D.C. Appleseed Center seven years ago, when the nonprofit group wrote a "fix-it" manual offering suggestions for improvement. At that time, Appleseed found that up to 50 percent of District law was enacted under emergency circumstances.

The numbers might have declined, but "the concerns are still valid," said Walter Smith, executive director of D.C. Appleseed.

Sometimes burning issues addressed by emergency legislation cool off with little notice. During summer 2005, as the mayoral campaign started to heat up and candidates exploring runs raised thousands of dollars, concerns arose because the city lacked any kind of public disclosure law for exploratory committees.

So the council enacted the Exploratory Committee Disclosure Informational Report and Contribution Prohibition Emergency Act of 2005.

The council never passed a permanent piece of legislation, however. Now, as candidates form exploratory committees to run for office in elections in Wards 4 and 7, there is no local law regarding public disclosure of contributions to or expenditures by the committees.

The council, which must approve all contracts for $1 million dollars or more, sometimes does that on emergency, too. On one day in July of last year, for example, the council approved $33 million in technology-related contracts on an emergency basis.

"It's a sign of bad practice when you have a contract on emergency," said council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3). "It means no one has done procurement in a timely fashion."