Seventeen rank-and-file Democrats in the state Assembly have proposed a series of reform measures they say would improve the way their house conducts its business.

The two main proponents of the package are Scott Stringer (D-Manhattan) and Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo).

Assemblyman Stringer said he has introduced a binding resolution to change Assembly rules governing how it considers and votes on legislation. A binding resolution can be passed and implemented in the Assembly without Senate action, “thus avoiding the chamber-to-chamber finger-pointing that is often used to defend legislative inaction,” Stringer’s release said.

The resolution would:

• Give each Assembly committee the power to hire and fire its own staff. Currently, the Assembly speaker keeps that power.
  
• Require all floor votes to be slow roll call votes, with members’ votes counted only when members are present in the chamber and personally indicate whether they wish to vote “aye” or “nay.” Few votes are currently subject to such a requirement and “empty chair voting” is a commonplace.
  
• Require a public hearing upon the petition of one-quarter of a committee’s members, unless the petition is rejected by a majority vote of the committee’s members.
  
• Require a two-thirds vote of the Assembly to accept a “message of necessity,” a parliamentary tool that is used to force votes without giving legislators time to read last-minute budgets and legislation.
  
• Make motions to discharge a viable tool to release bills from committee gridlock.
  
• Make attendance at committee meetings mandatory.