Can There Be a "Functional" State Senate?

New Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith plans to unveil a list of reforms to Senate rules that he says will make the house more fair, transparent and effective. They include:

Tallied votes: The Senate will now record how all lawmakers vote on bill amendments and on motions to move bills from committees to the Senate floor. Before, only "yes" votes were tallied. The record did not distinguish between senators who voted "no," those who abstained or were absent. "These votes, which rarely if ever pass, protect members from going on record as failing to discharge a bill," authors of the Brennan Center report wrote.

Bill discharge: Senators will have the power to move bills, or "discharge" them, from a committee to the Senate floor after only 20 days, rather than the previous 60-day waiting period. Currently, "discharge motions are subject to stringent time restrictions that the chair holds the sole power to waive," according to the Brennan report. "Thus, it remains impossible to receive full consideration over the objection of the leadership even if enough support exists to pass a bill." From 2006 through 2008, not a single bill was successfully moved from committee to a floor vote, according to the Brennan Center.

Open sponsorship: Any senator will be able to co-sponsor bills without leadership approval. Previously, senators had to ask the majority leader for permission to sign on as a co-sponsor of a bill. Senate Democrats said that the when the GOP held the majority, Republicans rarely would let minority members co-sponsor major bills. Republicans had controlled the Senate for more than 40 years.

Further study: Smith also plans to create a bipartisan commission, comprised of four Democrats and two Republicans, to study Senate rules and find ways to make the legislative process more democratic and transparent. The group will hold public hearings and report its findings to Smith within the next few months.

Can the dysfuctional heal themselves? we'll see.