Ch. 428                            MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                                   895

27.

There is hereby created a Legislative Council. Said Council shall be composed
of thirty members, as follows:

(1)  The President, the chairman of the finance committee, the chairman of the
judicial proceedings committee, the chairman of the committee on economic
affairs, the floor leader of the minority party and ten additional members to be
appointed by the President and approved by a majority vote of the Senate.

(2)  The Speaker, the chairman of the ways and means committee, the chairman
of the judiciary committee, the floor leader of the minority party and eleven
additional members to be appointed by the Speaker of the House and approved by
a majority vote of the House.

Said ten appointees from the Senate and eleven from the House of Delegates
shall be appointed during and after the 1967 Session of the General Assembly and
during each regular session thereafter to serve until the beginning of the next
regular session, or appointment of their successors. As far as possible, such
appointment shall be so distributed as to make the Council representative of all
sections of the State and of the relative party membership in each house. The
President of the Senate shall be chairman of the Council, and the Speaker of the
House shall be vice-chairman. The Director of the State Department of Legislative
Reference shall be the secretary and the director of research of the Council.

(3)  Any vacancy occurring in the membership of the Council other than in the
offices of chairman and vice-chairman while the General Assembly is not [is 1 IN
session shall be filled by appointment of the President of the Senate from among
the members of the Senate, if the vacancy is caused by the resignation or death of
a member of the Council from the Senate, and by the Speaker of the House of
Delegates, if the vacancy is caused by the resignation or death of a member of the
Council from the House of Delegates, the appointments to be made in accordance
with the provisions of subsections (1) and (2). If the vacancy in membership of the
Council is caused by the resignation or death of the chairman or vice-chairman,
the vacancy in such membership shall be filled by the members of the Council
from the membership of the Senate or the House of Delegates, as the case may be.
In case of vacancy in the office of chairman, the vice-chairman shall become
chairman and the members of the Council shall elect one of its members
vice-chairman in his stead; and in the case of a vacancy in the office of both
chairman and vice-chairman the members of the Council shall elect one of its
members chairman and one of its members vice-chairman.

(4)  With respect to the Legislative Council and its committees, the President of
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates each shall be responsible for
making any decisions which relate to or affect the activities of the members of
their respective bodies on the Council and its committees, including, but not
limited to, the making of appointments of officers and members of committees, the
setting of dates, times, and places of meetings of committees, and except that
travel and other legislative expenses of members of the Council and its committees
shall be approved by joint action of the President and the Speaker.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take
effect July 1, 1973.

Approved May 21, 1973.