Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

It's something of a Smith Hill ritual.

Each afternoon, as the General Assembly's session is about to begin, lobbyists swarm the House and Senate chamber, clogging the aisles in hopes of snagging that ever-important face time with legislators before the session starts and visitors are required to leave the floor.

At least that's the way it used to work. A new rule imposed in recent days by Speaker William J. Murphy bans lobbyists from the House floor starting at 3:50 p.m. Technically, that's 10 minutes prior to the start of the session, though most days the speaker doesn't bang the gavel until at least 4:15 p.m.

"Several of the members had requested of the speaker that they need more time to converse among themselves and they were being inundated by the lobbyists," Murphy's spokesman, Larry Berman, said of the change. "The lobbyists were right on top of them as they were trying to begin so they had no room to talk to each other or look at bills."

Murphy announced his new rule from the rostrum this month. To put some punch into it, House staffers now close the massive wooden chamber doors at ten minutes before four, relegating dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of lobbyists to the hallway outside.

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