Maine’s newly elected Legislature will be sworn into office Wednesday, and the incoming leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives say the upcoming session could include new limits on the use of vague placeholder bills that have generated criticism from the public, advocates and lawmakers alike.

Gov. Janet Mills, now entering her final two years in office, will administer the oath of office to incoming lawmakers Wednesday morning before they take up the adoption of legislative rules and the election of constitutional officers.

Mills also was scheduled to address lawmakers late Tuesday at a prelegislative conference reception and banquet in Augusta. Her prepared remarks focused on the looming negotiations over a new two-year budget, promising her proposal would be “lean” amid flattening revenues and urging lawmakers to keep the state’s long-term fiscal stability as a top priority.

Budget talks, however, won’t start in earnest until January. Swearing-in day is usually filled with pageantry, followed by the election of an attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer, and more mundane administrative tasks such as adopting a set of joint rules that includes deadlines for new bills.

Adopting rules usually attracts little fanfare. But increased criticism about a lack of transparency, especially with vague placeholder bills, has prompted calls for reform this year.

Lawmakers are not expected to debate any significant changes to the rules in their first meeting Wednesday, but incoming House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said changes may be made when lawmakers return to the State House next month to begin the first regular session.

“We still have several weeks in January where they can still be amended by a majority vote,” Fecteau said. “I definitely support changes but want to have conversations with members serving in the 132nd Legislature to sort out which amendments ought to be adopted.”

Concept drafts are bills introduced with only a title and sometimes a brief summary, but they do not have any legislative text. They are often introduced as placeholders for last-minute proposals or ambitious, complex policy proposals that have not taken shape. They can go to a public hearing or committee work session before any details are released to the public, including advocates, lobbyists, constituents and other lawmakers.

An analysis by the Press Herald last spring found that lawmakers offered a record number of concept bills in the last legislature.

Lawmakers submitted about 250 concept bills last session, a 25% increase from the previous Legislature and a fourfold increase from the roughly 60 concept bills submitted about 20 years ago. About 11% of all bills introduced in the current Legislature were concept bills, compared to 5% of the bills introduced in the 2015-16 Legislature.

The lack of public disclosure, critics say, makes it difficult for the public to weigh in and influence the outcome and feeds mistrust of state government.

A survey of legislative candidates conducted by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce showed widespread support for a rule that would require details of concept drafts to be publicly available at least 24 hours before a public hearing and any amendments to be available at least 24 hours before a committee work session.

“The real test is before them now,” chamber CEO Patrick Woodcock said of incoming leaders. “They will have the authority to really craft the rules, and I fully expect that they will take it seriously. I have been encouraged by some private conversations that they do want make real progress with transparency and efficiency of the legislature.”

NEW LAWMAKERS TO DECIDE

Lawmakers convened their joint rules committee for the first time in years over the summer to solicit ideas for addressing concept drafts and other choke points in the legislative process. But the committee could not change the rules for the incoming legislature, which has the power to adopt its own rules.

No formal votes were taken by the committee, but outgoing Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and outgoing House Majority Leader Mo Terry, D-Gorham, circulated a memo among committee members that was intended for incoming legislative leaders. That memo, obtained by the Press Herald, outlines several possible changes.

Those recommendations include prohibiting committee chairs from scheduling a public hearing on a concept draft until there is sufficient public information about what the bill would do. Chairs would need to make that determination within 10 days of the bill being referred to the committee. And if sufficient info is not available, the sponsor would have between 15 and 30 days to provide those details, or the bill would be reported as ought not to pass.

The committee also supported allowing committee chairs to introduce one after-deadline bill without having to seek approval from the Legislative Council, which is made of the presiding officers and partisan floor leaders in each chamber.

Incoming Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, said she and Fecteau expect to ask the incoming rules committee to consider possible changes to bring forward in January.

“I am so grateful for everything the joint rules committee has already done to give us a head start,” Daughtry said. “Our goal is to make sure all of us who are getting sworn in Wednesday are making those decisions.”