Theme for a day: the New Jersey Assembly did something more than business as usual last session. Lawmakers "bundled" bills into topic areas for legislative "theme days.".

So what if ... instead of bills wending their way separately through the legislature at their own pace ... they were all packaged under various "themes?"

That was the idea of New Jersey Speaker Albio Sires and Majority Leader Joseph Roberts Jr. The results were "theme" days at the Legislature when a number of similar bills were bundled under such topics as "Advocating for Consumers," "Defending Our Families," "Protecting Our Seniors" "Saluting Our Military and Veterans" and more.

Sires said the thinking behind the concept included promoting a specific agenda, as well as individual member's bills. He added the concept also helped break up the "routineness of floor voting sessions." In all, there were eight theme sessions.

"The themes concept helped bridge the always challenging divide of understanding how the Legislature conducts its business and how the public perceives it," Sires says. "Complex bills, for example, could be packaged under more understandable themes to clearly show the Assembly was working to help seniors or consumers or military veterans."

Before each theme session, various lawmakers held town meetings and other public forums to discuss issues of the impending bill series. Individual lawmakers also held press conferences on some of the themes. As an example, Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew briefed the press on measures he sponsored to improve telephone customer service as part of the Advocating for Consumers theme day.

The most emotional theme was "Saluting Our Military and Veterans" last May. The Assembly presented proclamations of regret to surviving members of three state families who lost loved ones in the Iraq conflict.

Some 20 bills were introduced that were specifically aimed at helping military personnel and veterans. Measures included increasing the benefits to National Guard members and their families and providing home health care to eligible veterans. Veterans from around the state sat in the gallery and watched the bills move through the Assembly.

Another theme session was spurred by the death of a 7-year-old boy whose body was hidden in a Newark basement where his starving brothers also were found. The boys were ostensibly under the protection of the Division of Youth and Family Services. The package of bills, "Safeguarding Our Children," approved by the Assembly included proposals to correct deficiencies in the youth services division and expansion of Megan's Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with police.

In all, Sires believes the theme program "worked well, but like anything there is always room for refinement." He said there were occasions when a bill was scheduled on a theme-oriented agenda, but later held.

"We've always maintained a principle of getting legislation done right rather than moving it along for the purposes of marketing," the speaker says. "The ultimate bottom line for any legislature is the quality of laws it enacts."

Dianna Gordon is an assistant editor for State Legislatures magazine.