House pulls an all-nighter

The House was facing some two-dozen proposals on property taxes and related issues, and initiated a rarely used procedure called becoming a "committee of the whole" in which to consider the many measures all at once.

Assembled as for any other working day, the 203-member chamber transformed itself into one mega-committee for an informal brainstorming session at which lawmakers set out to consider a deep lineup of 22 reform proposals without fear that their votes, which were unrecorded, would someday come back to haunt them.

They had only gotten through a half-dozen of the proposals by 6pm, so were planning to stay late in order to make some progress. I hope they find some areas of common agreement.