USA > Michigan > Michigan official directory and legislative manual for the years 1903-1904 > Part 13
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- Third reading of bills .- Under this coder such bills and joint resolutions as have received the proper consideration are put upon their passage. They are taken up in the order in which they are found on the files of the secretary or clerk. He announces the bill by number and title and reads the bill at length, unless the reading is dispensed with. The president or speaker then says: "This is the third reading of the bill. The question is on its passage." Debate is now in order. If a member wishes to explain his vote, or to be excused from voting, he must make the explanation or request at this time; for nothing of the kind is in order after the calling of the roll is commenced. As all bills have usually been fully considered before they reach this order, no amendments can be made to them in the senate unless seconded by a majority of the senate (rule 26), nor in the house except by a vote of two- thirds of all the members elect (rule 55). Debate having been concluded, the presiding officer says: "The question is now on the passage of the bill. All who are in favor of its passage will, as your names are called, say 'Aye'; those who are opposed will say 'No.' The secretary [or clerk] will call the roll." The roll is then called, the "Ayes" and "Noes" read and the number of each announced. If the requisite number of votes has been given in the affirmative, the presiding officer says: "A majority [or two-thirds] of all the members elect having voted therefor, the bill is passed." If the bill has not received the requisite number of votes, the announcement is made in the negative. If the bill passes, the presiding officer says, "The question is now on the title. The title will be agreed to unless there be objections." In case of a joint resolution, the question is on the title and preamble. If any amendments are necessary to the title, they must be made now. A majority vote is all that is necessary to make such amendments. If it is desirable to give the bill immediate effect, now is the time to make the motion. The bill is then transmitted to the other house for its action, unless notice is given by some member of his intention to move a reconsideration of the vote by which it passed.
Motions and resolutions .- This is the proper order for all motions which do not arise properly from the business under the other orders-such as motions to discharge committees from the further consideration of bills; to take bills from the table; to transfer bills from one stage of their progress through the house to another; to request the governor of the house to return a bill; and all resolutions on subjects outside of the usual order of business. Any busi-
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THE LEGISLATURE
ness may be brought before the house at this time by appropriate motions and resolutions.
Unfinished business .- In the course of the regular business of the session from day to day, it often happens that an adjournment is taken in the midst of the action on some matter before the house aud before any final dispo- sition is made of the question under discussion. In such case the whole mat- ter comes up under this order as soon as it is reached on any succeeding day. -See last sentence in next paragraph.
Special orders of the day .- If any business has been made the special order for a certain day, it is taken up as soon as this order of business is reached. If, however, it has been made the special order for any fixed hour of the day, it is taken up when that hour arrives, and takes precedence of all other business. In order to make any business a special order for a time certain, a two-thirds vote is necessary in the house, as it is equivalent to a suspen- sion of the rule prescribing the daily order of business; in the senate a majority vote only is requisite to suspend that rule. If any matter on the special order is not reached on the day set, it comes up afterwards under the order of unfinished business.
General orders of the day .. The work on this order is done in committee of the whole. After bills have been favorably reported by standing commit- tees, they are ordered printed, referred to the committee of the whole, and placed on the general order. When this order is announced, some member moves that the house resolve itself into committee of the whole on the gen- eral order. If the motion prevails, the presiding officer appoints a chairman for the committee and leaves the chair. The chairman calls the committee to order, and the bills are taken up in the order in which they are found on the files. The committee of the whole is an expedient to simplify the buis- ness of legislative bodies, by removing it from the formality of the house to the freedom and informality of a committee. No record is kept of its pro- ceedings, and the only evidence of its work is the report made by its chair- man and entered on the journal. Each member speaks as often as he pleases; hence all propositions may be thoroughly considered. When the committee is ready for work, the chairman announces the first bill on the order by number and title. He then reads the first section and asks, "Are there any amendments to section one of the bill?" After a pause, if no amendments are offered, he says, "If not the section will be passed. It is passed." He then reads the next section, and so on to the end of the bill. When the whole bill has been read, he asks, "Are there any amend- ments to the body of the bill?" Pausing again, if no amendments are offered, he says, "If not, the bill will be passed. It is passed." No amend- ments to a section are in order until the section has been read, nor any to the body of the bill until the whole bill has been read. The committee of the whole cannot amend the title nor strike out the enacting clause. All after the enacting clause may be stricken out, which is equivalent in effect. The committee may report a bill back to the house with the recommendation that it be laid on the table; recommitted to a committee; indefinitely postponed; made a special order; put upon its immediate passage, or otherwise disposed of. If the committee desires to rise before finishing the consideration of a bill, the usual motion is "that the committee rise, report progress and ask
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leave to sit again." If all the bills on the general order have been consid- ered, or if the committee has just finished the consideration of a bill and wishes to rise instead of taking up further work, the proper motion is "that the committee rise." This motion is always in order ; yet if it prevails, pending action on any measure, the bill or joint resolution is not reported to the house by the chairman, but falls back to its original place upon the files. If the motion to rise is decided in the affirmative, the speaker or president resumes the chair and calls the house to order. The chairman makes his report, and the house acts upon its recommendations and amendments, If the house concurs in the committee's recommendations, the bills are disposed of in accordance therewith. If the house refuses to concur the bills are dis- posed of as the house directs. If the committee has stricken out all after the enacting clause of a bill and the house concurs, the title and enacting clause are laid on the table. The amendments made in committee of the whole are written on slips of paper, and are not incorporated with the body of the bill unless the house concurs in the same. [In reference to amendments, see "Reports of standing committees."]
The bills which have been reported to the house with the recommenda- tion that they do pass are then placed on the order of third reading of bills for the next day's proceedings.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The day's work, after the legislative session has fairly begun and the gen- eral order files are well filled, usually closes with the work in committee of the whole. The house may, however, resume the regular order of business, or it may take a recess, or adjourn to give standing committees time to work and dispose of the bills on hand, that they may be printed and placed on the general order. Committee work is done in the rooms assigned to the respective committees.
A recess is taken from one hour of the same day to another, fixed in the motion for recess. An adjournment is taken to the usual hour of meeting on the next day, or some special hour fixed in the motion for adjournment. Each house determines the hour for the beginning of its da'ly sessions. When it is desirable to convene at some other hour, a resolution is often adopted "that when this house adjourns today, it stands adjourned until tomorrow at - o'clock - M." Then a simple motion to adjourn carries the session over to the time fixed in the resolution. Each house makes such adjournments as it deems best, subject only to the restrictions of section 12, Art. IV., of the constitution.
After a bill or joint resolution has passed both houses and has been returned to the house in which it originated, it is there referred to the com- mittee on engrossment and enrollment for enrollment. The enrolling clerk then makes a fair and correct copy of the same, changing its title from "a bill" to "an act." If it has been ordered to take immediate effect and so appears by the certificates of the secretary of the senate and the clerk of the house, an additional clause is added stating that "This act shall take immediate effect." This clause is often improperly added by members in drafting a bill. It should be omitted in the draft, as it has no force unless the bill is ordered to take immediate effect, by a vote of two-thirds of all
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. THE LEGISLATURE
the members elect in each house and is so certified by the two clerical officers, in which case it becomes the duty of the enrolling clerk to add the clause. The draft should also be endorsed "a bill," and not "an act," as is some- times done. The copy of the bill is then carefully compared by the com- mittee and, if correct, is submitted to the president of the senate and speaker of the house for their signatures. It is next submitted to the gov- ernor for his approval, and the committee reports the bill as having been "correctly enrolled, signed and presented to the governor." The original bills, as well as the enrolled copies, after approval by the governor, are finally filed in the office of the secretary of state. Any variations between the two are indicated by the use of brackets in the printing of the session laws.
Section 14, Art. IV., of the constitution, prescribes the duties of the gov- ernor, in relation to bills presented to him for approval. Whatever action he may take thereon is announced by him to the legislature by appropriate messages, which are entered on the journal. If he approves, this closes the history of the bill on the legislative records. If he disapproves, further action may be taken to pass the bill over the governor's veto, or the same may be finally disposed of by tabling, or indefinite postponement.
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MICHIGAN LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS. (a)
INDEX.
Adjournment-1, 80.
Amendment to committee report-5; to bills-2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 74, 77. Appeals-54, 66, 81, 92. Arrests-17, 18, 20.
. Authorities-12.
Bills-amendments to-2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 74, 77; signed by governor, unparliamentary to recall-84; recall from engrossing committee-95.
Call of the house-1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 53, 62.
Casting vote-27, 73.
Commitment-10, 29.
Committee of the whole-83.
Committee report-5, 8.
Concurrent resolutions-15, 21, 39, 50, 71, 94.
Conference committee-22, 23, 28, 36.
Contestant-right of, to vote-93.
Contested elections-24, 25. Dilatory motions-81.
Debatable questions-19, 76.
Division-of the house-13; of the question-4, 7, 28, 29, 30. Election of members-24, 25, 75.
Enacting clause-striking out all after -2, 7, 30.
Executive session-31.
Fifty days' limit-8, 38, 39, 72.
Galleries-clearing of-31. Immediate passage-81. Indefinite postponement-32, 33, 52, 75. Instructions-29, 44.
Introduction of bills-81. Irrelevancy-6.
Joint conventions-73. Joint resolutions-21, 30, 34, 72, 74, 86. Journal-37, 54, 55, 56, 69, 70, 92. Minority report-35, 36, 37. Oath of office-of secretary-40.
Passage of bills-14, 15, 77, 78, 79, 82, 97, 98.
Previous question-52, 53.
Printing-57, 58, 59, 76.
Protests-54, 55, 61, 87, 92, 93.
Questions of order-41-6, 51.
Questions of privilege-26, 54, 70, 88.
Reading of bills-16.
Recalling-of concurrent resolution- 94; of bills-95.
Reconsideration-60, 62-8, 69, 91.
Request-for return of bill-89.
Resolutions-42; concurrent-21, 39, 50, 71, 94; joint-8, 30, 34, 38, 72, 74. Rights of members-12, 16.
Rules of previous senate not in force until adopted-99.
Secretary-40
Select committee-5, 48.
Strike out-2, 30.
Strike out and insert-4, 7.
Substitute-3, 8, 14, 38, 49, 58, 74, 77. Suspension of rules-51. Table-32, 40, 47, 50, 57, 76.
Two-thirds vote-78, 82, 85, 86, 96, 97, 98. Veto-91.
Vote-casting-27, 73; change of-26; declaring of-90; duty to-27, 60; record of-70; two-thirds-78, 82, 85, 86, 96, 97, 98: right to-93. Yeas and nays-13, 15.
(a) These decisions have been carefully collected from the legislative journals from 1835 to 1891, inclusive. The decisions from 1891 to the present time, though compiled, are not included in the following list. The comments to the rulings up to and including number 91 were first written by D. L. Crossman, for many years clerk of the house, while those from number 91 to 98 were written by Lewis M. Miller, ex-clerk of the house. The decisions and comments have since been revised and rewritten by Charles S. Pierce, ex-secretary of the senate and present clerk of the house. The references "S. J." and "H. J." stand for "Senate Journal" and "House Journal," respectively.
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MICHIGAN LEGISLATIVE DECISIONS.
1. A motion to adjourn is in order during proceedings under call of the house .- Church's Appeal, H. J. 1851, p. 272.
Undoubtedly so; in fact, when a call has failed to bring in a quorum, the only way to dispose of it is to adjourn, as no other motion is in order.
2. It is not in order to amend a bill after a motion to strike out all after the cnacting clause has been put and lost .- Barry's Appeal, S. J. 1846, p. 257. Jone's Appeal, H. J. 1846, p. 57 (See 4).
This is true because a motion to amend takes precedence of a. motion to strike out. Therefore, the motion to strike out is held in abeyance until all motions to amend are disposed of.
3. A substitute for a senate substitute for a house bill was held not in order .- H. J. 1851 (Ex. Session, p. 62).
A substitute for a substitute is never in order. The proper procedure in such case would be a motion for the appointment of a committee of conference on the differences between the two houses relative to the bill.
4. A proposition to strike out a section and insert a new one in lieu thereof having been lost, a motion to amend said section by striking out a portion thereof was held out of order .- H. J. 1870, p. 78.
This ruling is, undoubtedly, incorrect, for the motion to strike out and insert is simply a motion to amend the section, like any other motion to amend. If the motion does not prevail, any motion to amend would still be in order. If the motion prevailed, a motion to amend the section as amended would not be in order. Such motion should have been made as an amendment to the amendment when the motion to strike out and insert was pending.
5. The report of a select committee may be amended .- Etheridge's Ap- peal, S. J. 1839, p. 208.
It is hard to see how any question could be raised on this point. The report of any committee is usually accepted without formality, and then becomes the property of the house, to amend, adopt or reject, as it may please.
6. A motion to amend may be ruled out of order on account of irrele- vancy .- Greenly's Appeal, S. J. 1840, p. 634.
If a proposed amendment is clearly irrelevant it certainly cannot be in order as an amendment.
7. A motion was made to strike out all after the enacting clause of a house bill and insert in lieu thereof a certain senate bill. The question was divided and the proposition to strike out was lost. A motion to amend the bill farther was then held out of order, as the senate had refused to strike out all after the enacting clause .- Sumner's Appeal S. J. 1840, p. 440.
The motion to strike out and insert should not have been divided, as, under parliamentary law, the motion to strike out and insert is not divis- ible. It is doubtful whether the motion should have been entertained at all as an amendment. The proper motion to accomplish the purpose aimed at is a motion to substitute one bill for the other, which motion must necessarily be held in abeyance for any motions to amend the original bill.
15
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8. The committee of the whole having reported a substitute which did not relate to the subject matter of the bill and having been discharged, a point of order was raised while the report was under consideration as to the propriety of entertaining the substitute. Held, that, as the senate had discharged the committee, it was a virtual reception of the report, and that the bill and substitute were before the senate .- Howell's Appeal, S. J. 1844, p. 92.
As a point of order the objection to the substitute reported by the com- mittee of the whole was not well taken, for the reason that a substitute, according to parliamentary practice, need not be relevant ; but the action of the committee of the whole in substituting a bill relating to different subject matter, after the expiration of the fifty day limit, was in violation of the constitution, and it was therefore the duty of the president of the senate to rule the substitute out of order, and to leave any action on the original bill, such as its re-reference to the committee of the whole, to the senate. In fact, had the fifty day limit not expired, it would still have been the duty of the president of the senate to rule the substitute out of order, for the reason that a bill on the new subject matter had not been introduced nor read a first and second time, as required by the constitu- tion.
9. An amendment in the senate to an amendment of a house amendment was held out of order .- Finley's Appeal, S. J. 1850, p. 329.
This decision is clearly wrong, for the reason that the house amendment came to the senate as an original proposition, and could be amended in the same way as could any other subject matter before the senate.
10. An amendment pending when the bill is committed falls .- Shoe- maker's Appeal, S. J. 1850, p. 238.
The intent of the motion is to have the committee perfect the bill, instead of having amendments, which might be objectionable, adopted without due consideration.
11. When a bill has passed the senate and house, and has been returned to the senate, the senate cannot amend those portions of the bill which have been fully considered and agreed to by both houses .- Mead's Appeal, S. J. 1851 (Ex. Session), p. 87.
If a bill is returned with house amendments, no action can be taken by the senate on those parts which have been agreed to by both houses.
12. A member has a right to quote and read authorities in support of his argument on any pending question .- H. J. 1861, p. 1076.
The parliamentary practice in this regard is so well established that it is difficult to understand how the question could have been raised.
13. A demand for the ayes and noes is not in order after a division of the house is ordered .- Smith's Appeal, H. J. 1841, p. 682.
After a division of the house is ordered, nothing is in order but the division ; but the congressional practice is to allow the requisite number of members to order the yeas and nays even after a division is had. It has also become the practice in this state to allow a demand for the yeas and nays at any time before the vote on the division is announced. This has come to be regarded as good practice in all legislative bodies.
14. When the house adopts a substitute for a senate bill, and the senate concurs with certain amendments, the concurrence of the house to those amendments passes the bill .- Tucker's Appeal, H. J. 1840, p. 516.
The concurrence must be by yeas and nays. When the house has con- curred in the senate amendments to the house substitute, every part of the bill as It stands has received the sanction of both houses.
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15. A concurrence in the report of a conference committee by a majority of all the members elect is a passage of the bill .- Conger's Appeal, S. J. 1858, p. 107.
The vote on the report must be by yeas and nays, and it is not adopted unless a majority of all the members elect in each house, respectively, vote therefor.
16. At the first session of the legislature, under the constitution of 1850, it was held in the senate that a motion that the second reading of a bill be by its title only, was out of order under the constitution .- Le Roy's Appeal, S. J. 1851, p. 20. This ruling was confirmed in the senate of the next legislature, by two decisions that the reading of a bill by its title only "was not a reading of the bill within the meaning of the provisions of the constitution."-Griswold's Appeal, S. J. 1853, pp. 12, 22. In the house of 1865, a motion having been made that the reading of a bill in extenso be dispensed with, on its third reading, and a point of order having been raised thereon, it was held that it is the right of any member to demand of the house, upon the third reading of a bill, to order that it be read by its title only .- Williams' Appeal, H. J. 1865, p. 1288. See also Williams' Protest, p. 1363, and Brockway's Resolution, p. 1655.
The practice for many years has been and now is to read bills the first and second times by title, and the third time at length, unless by unani- mous consent the third reading be dispensed with. Upon third reading of bills the reading at length is never dispensed with against the objec- tion of a single member. If the reading of the bill is dispensed with by unanimous consent, it is "considered read" and the Journal shows it to have been read. This reading of bills the first and second times by title and the third time at length is now considered a compliance with the con- stitutional provision which requires that every bill be read three times before the vote is taken on its passage ; and this legislative practice was held good by the supreme court (72 Mich. 446), the reasons given being that the courts ought not to overturn a legislative practice of such long standing, and that to hold otherwise would invalidate a large portion of the statutory law of the state.
17. Under the operation of a call and after the sergeant-at-arms had been dispatched after the absentees generally, a resolution to send the sergeant-at-arms after certain members (naming them), who have remained absent since the beginning of the [extra] session, was held not in order, as its adoption would be resolving a second time to do a thing which the house had already ordered .- H. J. 1870, p. 151.
It is questionable whether this resolution should have been called out of order, for the reason that the previous motion that the sergeant-at-arms be dispatched after absentees was evidently for the purpose of bringing in members who were near at hand, in order to get a fuller attendance at that time, while the purpose of the resolution was plainly not to secure the attendance of the two members named at that session, but to bring them in at a later session and find out why they had absented themselves during the entire extra session up to date. It, perhaps, might have been better had the resolution not been offered at that time, but after proceed- ings under the call had been dispensed with.
18. The senate having refused to order a call of the senate, a motion that the sergeant-at-arms be directed to request the attendance of a senator was held out of order .- Barry's Appeal, S. J. 1841, p. 258.
It is difficult to see what parliamentary rule or practice justified the ruling out of order of this motion, even though the action requesting the attendance of a member would have no force.
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19. A motion for a call of the senate is a debatable question .- S. J. 1850, p. 432.
The previous question would, of course, apply to this motion, the same as to other motions.
20. Under a call of the house, and after the bar had been closed and the sergeant-at-arms dispatched after the absentees, it was held that, as a quorum was present, the business of the house could proceed .- Chamber- lain's Appeal, H. J. 1855, p. 191.
When a call of the house is occasioned by lack of a quorum, it is some- times the practice, upon obtaining a quorum, to dispense with farther proceedings under the call, and sometimes to proceed with business under the call. But, the motion for a call is often for the purpose of securing a full vote on some pending question, and the fact that a quorum is present is well understood at the time the call is ordered. In such cases, after the vote on the pending question has been taken, it is the usual practice ' to dispense with farther proceedings under the call.
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