Legislative Policy Portfolio/Paper Instructions
The purpose of the Legislative Policy Portfolio/Paper is to track the development of a social welfare policy introduced in the Georgia Legislative Assembly. The process involves selecting a state bill introduced during the 2017-2018 legislative session. Selection of legislative billsis dependent upon which bills are formerly introduced in the General Assembly, but may include topics such as substance abuse, child abuse, access to health care, disability services, mental health, or immigration.Students are advised not to select appropriation or budget spending bills, or Senate/House Resolutions (SR/HR) on any topic.
Major features of the Portfolio/paper will involve interviewing several key persons invested in the development and implementation of the selected legislative bill. Generally, regardless of the immediate focus of the bill, every legislative response will have some impact on a community. As such, each submitted portfolio/paper must consider the effects of the selected legislation on the community at large. You may obtain this information from speaking with legislator(s), the legislators' aids, agency representatives, and community representatives (e.g., recipients of service provisions, administrators of agencies providing services, advocacy groups). Each student must seek the opinions of those with various viewpoints on the issue covered in the selected legislation and discuss in the assignment which groups and individuals are supportive andwhich groups are non-supportive of the legislation, and the bases for their positions.
1. PROBLEM DEFINITION.
The introduction to the legislative brief describes the social issue or problem that is addressed by the state legislature. You must give background information with some descriptive indicators (social, economic, political or other relevant indicators) about the type and severity of the problem and the effects of the problem on the state, communities, or specific population groups.
a. What is the specific problem/issue addressed in the state bill? Who defined the problem (e.g., sponsoring legislator, community representatives, other)? Is there more than one definition of the problem?
b. What are the objective indicators that the problem exists in the state or a community? (Use U.S. census data sources, state data sources, community survey results to support your problem definition).
c. Describe which groups are most affected by the problem, and evidence to support your description.
d. How does the problem impact people/communities, either positively or negatively?
e. Is the problem present in every community in Georgia, or certain localities? Does the problem "look the same" across different localities? What evidence supports your position?
f. Which types of people are most affected by the problem? Are all people impacted similarly or are there differences? Again, provide state or local data to support your problem description.
g. Is there a similar problem in other states? For example, compare counties or states with national data on the issue, if appropriate.
2. LEGISLATIVE BILLCONTENT ANALYSIS
Address each of the questions below about the content of the legislative bill:
a. What are the goals of the bill? What does it hope to achieve?
b. What specific services or benefits are included in the bill? (e.g., new/amended programs, extended access to services for marginalized groups, new monetary benefits, including tax credits) to address the defined problem?
c. Who is eligible to receive the above benefits/services? What groups will be excluded from receiving services/benefits, and why?
d. Is there consensus or conflict among various interested parties on what the bill proposes as a solution? What is the intended outcome to result from the proposed solution to the problem?
e. Are there any possible unintended consequences, and what provisions are made to address them?
3. LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
Describe the process the legislation went through during the legislative session:
a. Is the bill an amendment to an existing law? If yes, cite the law. What are the changes/differences between the existing law and the bill?
b. What committee was the bill assigned? Who is the chair of that committee?
c. Was the bill assigned to a sub-committee? Who chaired the sub-committee?
d. Were there any public hearings on the bill? If there were any public hearings on the bill, what individuals/groups gave testimony in the hearings? What issues were raised during the hearings by those giving testimony and/or by the legislators?
e. Were there any lobbyists working for/against the bill? What were their positions on the bill?
f. Did the content of the bill change while in committee? Who advocated for these changes, and why? Did the changes alter the original intent of the bill, positively or negatively? Was there consensus/conflict on the bill's changes?
g. Was there a committee vote on the bill? What was the vote count?
h. Were other bills introduced in the legislature to address the same problem? If so, what was the purpose of this tactic? Cite the other bills introduced.
i. If two bills addressing the same problem progressed through both chambers of the legislature, did the sponsors of the bills compromise or negotiate to join or eliminate one bill? What were the strategies of the bills' sponsors? What did they hope to accomplish?
j. Was there any floor discussion about the bill in the House and/or Senate? What impact did this have on the bill's outcome?
k. Were there any floor votes on the bill? What was the final count? How did your personal legislators vote on the bill?
l. What role did the Governor have on the bill's progress through the legislature?
4. POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
a. What governmental or private agency will have responsibility for administering the legislation if it becomes law (e.g., Georgia Department of Human Services, Division on Aging, Public Health Services, Division of Family and Children Services)?
b. What type of programs or services will the bill provide? Does the bill propose to support existing services or establish new services?
c. How will recipients receive any services or benefits under the legislation? Is a new/modified service delivery system required, or is the current service delivery system sufficient under the legislation?
d. How will any new services/programs be financed under the legislation or is the legislation fiscal neutral (no new public monies are required)
e. Is there a fiscal note accompanying this bill, if so how much money is requested by the sponsor?
f. Are requested/current monetary resources are adequate to meet the legislation's objectives.
5. COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS
The following community representativesmustbe interviewed for your paper:
1. One or more sponsors of the bill. (Generally, the first name on the bill is the originator of the bill. He/she will have the most knowledge about the problem and the solution proposed in the bill);
2. Your personal state legislators (Senator and Representative) to gain their perspective on the problem/issue being addressed by the bill and the proposed solution expressed in the bill;
3. At minimum, two community representatives who would be affected by the bill to gain their perspective about the problem and solutions to the problem (e.g., front line social workers, agency administrators, a member of an advocacy/lobbying group, recipients of services, or other community residents who will be directly impacted by the bill).
Present the following information on interviewed stakeholders:
a. How do stakeholders define the problem?
b. Do other interested parties (community representatives, clients, agency representatives) define the problem differently or the same?
c. Are there differences on how the problem is defined between the sponsors of the bill and other invested groups? Who disagrees that a problem exists, and why? What is their perception of what is occurring with the issue?
d. Do stakeholders agree or disagree with the proposed solution to the problem?
e. Is there disagreement about how the problem should be resolved by stakeholders?
f. What alternative solutions were offered to resolve the problem by stakeholders?
6. PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
As a social worker, present your perspective about the social problem, the proposed solution, and the legislative process.Discuss each point below in the paper/portfolio:
a. Review the NASW Code of Ethics. What are the ethical strengths/weaknesses of the proposed solution to the social problem?Cite the Code to illustrate your points.
b. What ethical dilemmas might be evident as a result of implementing the legislative bill?Give comments on how the policy may affect individuals, families, communities, or practicing social work professionals.
c. What did you learn about the ethics of policymaking based on your observations, interviews, discussions with legislators and community stakeholders? [Be critical in your analysis, not just descriptive].
d. Present your position on the bill.
e. Discuss how this bill will/will not resolve the problem as defined by legislators and/or persons affected by the problem?
f. Were there any unintended consequencesevident after discussing the bill with legislators, community stakeholders, lobbyists (e.g., new problems emerge as a result of the implementation of the state law)?
g. What sections of the bill would you recommend needs modification to address any discrepancies or unaddressed problems, and what action steps would you implement to address such issues. Similarly, what aspects of the bill are good for addressing the problem and should be protected?
h. How will this bill enhance social justice for the targeted individuals/groups in Georgia?
i. Discuss how this bill aligns/does not align with your personal values?
j. Finally, what insights did you gain about policy making from participating in this assignment?
7. COLLABORATIVE ADVOCACY
Give TWO advocacy strategiesyou would use with selected community representatives to advocate for/against the bill, and provide a rationale for your strategies.
a. What skills as defined by DiNitto (e.g., political, analytical, value-clarification, etc.), are necessary to support your suggested advocacy strategies?
b. What barriers might you encounter when executing your advocacy strategies, and how would you try to overcome them?
8. GENERAL WRITING SKILLS
Students are expected to submit work that is grammatically correct, with few/no punctuation or spelling errors, and proper use of in text citations. APA formatting must used in all text.
9. Overall Presentation
Portfolios: Student work should show a balanced and logical integration of photographs, web insertions, embedded videos, or other content with written material. Media sources should only supplement the written content. Student work should demonstrate strong competency in writing and content organization. The text reflecting the student's ideas and observations should dominate the overall content. The portfolio should have separate tabs that reflect the required content sections.
Papers: Student work should demonstrate strong competency in writing skill and paper organization, including use of an abstract and subheadings to identify the required content sections.
10. References
All students must cite a minimum of TEN SCHOLARLY REFERENCES in their work (e.g., peer review journal articles, books, monographs, etc.) to support the context of the social problem being addressed in the legislative bill. PLEASE NOTE-Wikipedia, ASK.com, and other similar sources are NOT scholarly resources and they should not be used as a scholarly reference for your research. APA (American Psychological Association) style must be used for text citations and reference pages. Please review the assignment rubric to assess full performance on these criteria.