Woodchucks and zombie bills: Your guide to legislative lingo

A first-time visitor to the Capitol can’t help but be impressed by the ornately decorated interior and exterior of this grandiose and heavily marbled building.

But the same visitor ducking into a room while a committee is hearing bills might also become intimidated by the particular and sometimes peculiar terms used to conduct Capitol business.

Some of the terms can be easily sorted out, such as the typical political double-speak of saying “fee adjustments” or “revenue enhancements” instead of saying what they really are: tax increases.

But what’s a poison pill, or a woodchuck bill, or logrolling?

Read on, and you’ll learn about a few of the quirkier legislative terms used around here. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of all legislative terms – that would have a hundred or more entries – but just those unique to Minnesota, those that are unintuitive, and those having interesting backstories.

Master them, and you’ll soon feel right at home in Ulcer Gulch or the SOB.

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Christmas tree bill; Garbage bill

A “Christmas Tree” bill is generally passed late in a legislative session and contains language to advance pet projects. It gains its name from the many provisions or “ornaments” that are attached.

Also called a garbage bill, and the subtle distinction is that a “garbage bill” tends to refer more specifically to a bill where the flotsam is added during the conference committee process.

Dead bill

You’ve been tricked; there’s no such thing. Even if a bill dies in committee by not garnering enough votes to advance, it’s never truly dead until the Legislature adjourns the biennial session sine die. That’s because its language can be offered as an amendment to another bill elsewhere. Or the bill’s sponsor can withdraw the bill from the uncooperative committee and shop around for another one that’s perhaps less murderous.

As the former director of the nonpartisan House Research Department, Patrick McCormack, once explained, a bill that would seem to be dead in committee is merely “less alive than it was before.”

Dilatory

Deliberate use of parliamentary procedure to delay the legislative process, e.g., by making a lengthy Floor speech. The speaker will no doubt think of him- or herself as being a great Shakespearian orator, but across the aisle, the effort will be seen as much ado about nothing.

Gut and go

A slang term for a delete-all amendment, which removes everything after the title of a bill and replaces it with a completely new bill, usually containing numerous smaller bills or provisions that have been assembled into an omnibus bill.

You’ll hear “DE amendment” being used in public hearings, but the slang term is sometimes used behind the scenes.

Hopper; In the hopper

The hopper is a wire basket next to the clerk's desk in the House Chamber where bills are placed to await their first reading.

In 1978, when now-Chief Clerk Pat Murphy was beginning his House career, he taught new House pages (those who assist members on the Floor) to question a representative asking them to put a bill “into the basket.” To avoid disaster, pages needed to clarify with the member whether this meant in the hopper, or in the wastebasket.

Joint session

When the House and Senate meet together, as when the governor gives a state of the state address or University of Minnesota Board of Regents are chosen.

So … not as much fun as it sounds, eh?

Logrolling

Combining several provisions into a single bill, each of which is supported only by a minority of members, but when voted for as a package, will have enough votes to pass.

Message bill

Proposed legislation introduced with the understanding that it has little to no chance of becoming law but helps further a political message. More commonly used by the political party not in power and more common in an election year.

Ominous bill

Not a slang term per se, but a Freudian slip that lawmakers sometimes make when they mean to say omnibus bill.

Omnibus bill

A large legislative package that combines numerous smaller bills or provisions into one large bill, typically addressing a broad range of issues or covering a specific area like appropriations or taxes.

Lawmakers have love-hate relationships with these bills. While they can be an efficient way to pass laws (who would want to separately debate and vote on the dozen or so laws in an omnibus bill?), they are often hundreds of pages long and produced toward the end of a session where there is no time to thoroughly read them and fully understand.

They may also contain poison pill provisions (see below) that could slip through undetected.

Other body; Other chamber

For reasons of pride or superstition – or a little bit of each – some House members try to never refer to the Senate by name, and if they do, they correct themselves and say “the other body” or “the other chamber.”

And all representatives, it is safe to say, try really, really, hard not to call the Senate “the upper chamber.”

Peace in the valley

A lawmaker describing his or her bill in committee or on the House or Senate Floor will use this term if all parties affected by the bill (the “stakeholders” – more jargon!) have agreed to its provisions. Also refers to a bill with broad bipartisan support.

Phone a friend

Similar to the bit in “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” when a struggling contestant phones a friend for help answering a question. When legislators can’t answer a question posed to them in committee – even about a bill they sponsor – they may ask to “phone a friend.”

Actual phone calls are not made, as the helper is often an expert testifier already seated at the testifier’s table or somewhere in the hearing room, or a nonpartisan House Research policy or fiscal analyst assigned to the committee.

Pickle; To pickle

To pickle: Halting the progress of a bill by referral to another committee or by not permitting a hearing. A passive-aggressive way to make sure a bill doesn’t see the light of day.

Poison pill

A classic means of political sabotage. A poison pill, also called a wrecking amendment, is an amendment to a bill that is so objectionable that even a bill’s supporters would vote against it if the poison pill makes it into the final version.

Progress

Capitolese doesn’t get any more convoluted than this: Progress means the lack of progress. It delays action on a bill by temporarily setting it aside. It’s usually requested when the bill’s sponsor needs to get his or her act together.

Senate Time

Like a Twilight Zone episode where things are not what they seem, Senate Time is a distortion of normal time. The term came about because Senate meetings rarely start on time and usually begin 15 minutes or later beyond their scheduled start time.

But lest you think this snark only goes in one direction, Senators will also poke fun of themselves and their quirky sense of time, usually as a public apology for their tardiness as they convene a meeting delayed by a Senate time warp.

Sine die

Literally, “without day;” a Latin phrase meaning to conclude a regular or special session without setting a day to reconvene. Because Latin is a dead language, there is no agreement on its correct pronunciation, and several variations exist. The most common difference is whether the word “die” is pronounced with one or two syllables.

It has happened that the House Floor leader will make the motion to adjourn using one pronunciation of sine die and the Speaker responds pointedly and deliberately using a different variation.

SOB

In most cases, a reference to the State Office Building.

Trifecta

A repurposed use for the horse racing term whereby a bettor wins by selecting the first three finishers of a race in the correct order of finish.

In politics, though, it means one political party has control of the governor’s office and the House and Senate. The shut out party has very little power when a trifecta is in place and will decry a lack of ideological balance they swear voters deserve.

Ulcer Gulch

The affectionate moniker given to the Capitol’s second-floor snack-food market with a too-small sit-down eating area. So named because it’s frequented by stressed-out lobbyists and overworked Capitol staffers who don’t have time to eat healthy, nutritious meals.

Vehicle bill

A colleague first heard this term in a transportation committee and thought that members would be discussing a bill about cars or some other transportation-related topic.

But the term is used in any committee where a small bill is used to “carry” a large omnibus bill. The procedure is to take a bill proposing a small change in law and use a delete-all amendment to turn it into a large omnibus bill. See Gut and go.

Woodchuck bill

A piece of legislation that has an effect not apparent on the surface and usually to the sponsor’s advantage. Former Minneapolis Star columnist Betty Wilson said a woodchuck bill can often be spotted when its sponsor describes it as a “simple, non-controversial bill.”

The term comes from an old folk tale about a lazy woodchuck dozing atop a woodpile in the warm sun. An unsuspecting woodsman reaches in for a piece of wood, mistakenly grabs the woodchuck, and is promptly bitten. The moral? What you think you’re getting isn’t always what it appears to be.

Zombie bill

A bill that was killed in committee, but since no bill is truly ever dead until adjournment sine die, a zombie bill arises elsewhere in a “less alive than it was before” mode.