by Ian Donnis | November 20, 2020 ||| #4) Even under the best of circumstances, the legislative process can seem opaque to those who do not follow it closely. So what happens when members of the public do not have an opportunity to show up and testify? With luck, some degree of normalcy will return by the crunch time of the 2021 General Assembly session. For now, Jocelyn Foye of the Womxn Project is calling on the legislature to develop specific policies and procedures to offer more openness, accessibility and transparency in the legislative process. Here’s an excerpt from a longer letter sent by the Womxn Project and backed by more than 20 different organizations: “We have the opportunity and the obligation to reimagine how participatory democracy works in our state. Now is the time to ensure the legislative process is inclusive of all voices, and that the people who are the most marginalized – Black, Indigenous, and people of color, disabled people, low-income families, immigrants – are centered in these discussions about how the General Assembly should conduct business.”
