SENATE COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Description of Role

• Each of the Committees will have a Senate and House Chair.
• The Senate Chair will run the Public Hearings and the Work Sessions.
• The Senate Chair will be the presiding officer for that committee.
• The Senate Chair must also report of the Committee action to the Senate. When the President of the Senate asks for a recommendation on a bill it is the job of the Senate Chair to stand and make that recommendation, it is in most cases the recommendation of the committee but the Senate Chair may make any recommendation they wish.
• They also must provide the full Senate with information such as testimony of lobbyists that was important to the action that the committee took

Responsibilities

• Be the sponsor of 1 bill that will be assigned to their committee
• Be familiar with all of the bills that are designated to come to your committee, so you can be prepared for the issues that you will be discussing.
• Create and maintain the calendar of bills for your committee, scheduling time for the Public Hearing for each bill.  Presiding over all Public Hearings and Work Sessions, making sure that every bill is heard and that the time allotted for hearing and work sessions is used efficiently.
• Be familiar with the procedures of testifying at a committee, and how to correctly run a Public Hearing, and Work Session.
• Insure that your committee utilizes the entire time scheduled for Public Hearings and Work Sessions, to be sure that every bill on your committee receives a quality hearing, and that everyone interested in speaking for or against the bill has the opportunity.
• Present Committee Actions to the Senate members.
• Lead your committee to the selection of  1 bill to be nominated as the Best Bill Award Winner
• Serve as a member of the Senate

Attend the Leadership Session:

MUST ATTEND LEADERSHIP SESSION, information about the session will be mailed to you prior to the event.

Scripts or additional Information:

Click here to download Script for Running a Public Hearing

Click here to download Script for running a Work Session

Click here to download Testifying at a Public Hearing