Assembly Reformers Call for Post-Silver Changes

As members of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Democratic conference await his expected resignation of his speakership and decide who will replace him, a new “Reform Caucus” is pushing for changes to help prevent the crimes Silver is accused of committing.

The recently formed caucus will release later on Tuesday the full list of reforms, which is still being finalized, sources said.

However, there are at least five key reforms expected to be part of the list: term limits for the Assembly speaker; equal allocations of resources for each Assembly member’s staff; reforms to the way bills get to the floor; term limits for committee chairs; and allowing committee chairs’ staff to be hired by the committee chairs.

There were originally about 15 members of the caucus, but sources say that number has grown and that the group has been getting a lot of attention from other members. Assemblywoman Shelley Mayor and Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda are among the members of the new caucus.

At this point, the caucus has not thrown their support behind any particular candidate for speaker, but said that their choice would be based on support of these reform proposals.