STANDING COMMITTEES

After the various leadership positions are filled, party legislative leaders in each house meet to make committee assignments. Considerations include the preferences of the individual legislators, the members' backgrounds, length of service, and home counties. The majority party in each house chooses the chairmen and determines the number of majority and minority members on each committee, in proportion to their total numbers in the house. The majority traditionally honors the minority's preferences for committee assignments.

Officially, the committee chairman and members are appointed by the presiding officer of each house at the opening of the session in January, and the number, names and sizes of the committees specified in the rules adopted by each house.

In 1972, as a result of recommendations of the legislative commission studying legislative procedures, the Senate reduced the number of reference committees to 10, enabling Senators to serve on no more than two committees. Despite this organizational structure, for years the real legislative action in New Jersey took place in majority party caucuses in each house. There, behind closed doors, bills were debated and exceptions made, caucuses, by majority vote, decided which bills wouId be sent to the floor for a vote and how, and if they would be amended. Floor debate was often lengthy and heated, but the crucial decision had normally already been made. Voting on the floor usually followed strict party lines, with objections usually indicated by abstentions rather than by "nay" votes. Bills were almost never defeated once they came up for a vote.

In 1971,the Assembly adopted new procedures that eliminated the use of the caucus to control the flow of bills to the floor. The Senate continues to use the majority party caucus to consider major bills. During the course of a legislative session, the leadership of both parties hold regular conferences with the Governor on legislative matters, and when his party is in the majority, he will normally have considerable influence on scheduling bills on the calendar.

In both houses, committee meetings have been put on a regular basis. Both houses are required to provide regular written reports of committee attendance and votes taken. Committees are also required to furnish written statements, explaining the bills they report. There is no requirement that committee meetings be open to the public, although some committees are allowing this. The most visible sign of new procedures in the Assembly has been an increase in the number of biIls being defeated after open debate on the floor.