Sometimes you don’t

Sometimes you need to introduce a bill, and sometimes you don’t.

I’ve known Herman Berlin since childhood. He now runs an auto parts distributorship.

When the state entered into a contract with a national company, Herman did not have an opportunity to make a competing bid. He has lost a sizeable amount of business, as have other local firms – many of them small or minority companies.

We held our second meeting on this matter with Secretary of General Services Al Collins this morning. Since this national company has entered into similar contracts in other states, we agreed that I would draft a bill modeled on the Pennsylvania law dealing with this issue.

Our third meeting will take place after my bill is drafted, but before it is introduced.

Another bill I was considering deals with a more controversial issue. Federal legislation would provide money for states to provide this benefit in an innovative way.

Instead of waiting for the Congress to act, I thought, let’s do a pilot project with the state dollars already budgeted for this program for the upcoming fiscal year. (That means no additional cost to implement my bill.)

During a conference call today, state agency officials told me they already planned to do this. Keep me informed, I responded.

No need for a bill now.