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DELEGATE B. MILLER: When you
urged approval of Amendment No. 15, I
assume that was because it was applied in
the House exactly as Amendment No. 14
applied in the Senate. In Amendment No.
16, this is a separate consideration, is it
not? This applies to the regular passage
of bills and does not have to do with ex-
pulsion?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes, that is
correct, but I think we ought to be con-
sistent throughout the entire constitution
once the decision has been made, so that
there will not be different kinds of a ma-
jority, <and therefore I would urge that we
adopt Amendment No. 16 as well.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate B. Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Is it not true
that in other constitutions there is a differ-
ence in the kind of majority required for
expulsion and the kind of majority that is
required for the passage of bills?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes.
Some of the states do vary with respect
to this, but again I say that in the interest
of having a consistent constitution on the
question of what kind of majority vote is
necessary to undertake various activities,
I would personally prefer that the same
kind of a majority be used .throughout the
entire constitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Miller, do
you desire to speak on the question?
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may proceed.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: I am sorry
that I have to take a different position from
my Chairman on this matter but I feel that
the number of people who voted for Amend-
ments No. 14 and No. 15 feel 'that when
the House votes on its own rules, and its
own decisions, that this is a different type
of procedure, and that in that case, a con-
stitutional majority might be necessary,
but I would think that in the examples we
have heard today, of legislators who have
deliberately obstructed the passage of bills
because they did not wish their votes known
to their constituents, that a different kind
of situation prevails, and I would urge that
we vote no on Amendment No. 16.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Mr. Chairman,
may I ask a question of Chairman Galla-
gher?
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THE CHAIRMAN: We are beyond the
time of questions. He does not have the
floor. The Chair permitted it in that one in-
stance and will again but we cannot at this
point in the discussion have questions of
the Committee Chairman.
Delegate Gallagher, do you yield to a
question?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I do, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: I wanted to
raise a question, because of the colloquy
that occurred earlier between Chairman
Gallagher and Delegate Gilchrist with re-
spect to the interpretation which they
placed upon the words which would be left
in this section if this amendment were
adopted in the instance where a legislator
resigned.
THE CHAIRMAN: You do not have to
explain the reason for it. The Chair said
you can state your question.
DELEGATE MARION: My question is
whether Delegate Gallagher is asking us to
vote for this amendment, based upon the
Gilchrist interpretation of that language,
or whether he is asking us to vote for it
on what seems to me to be the interpreta-
tion of the language, that a member is a
member and if the member is not there he
is not part of a majority.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Well, I be-
lieve again that since Mr. Gilchrist indi-
cated he was favoring in his minority re-
port the existing Maryland practice under
the 1867 Constitution, which is a majority
of all of those seats in a Senate or House,
regardless of whether or not there be a
vacancy, that that is his position. I so in-
terpreted all these amendments to mean
that, although I quite agree, there could be
a little more apt phraseology to make that
clearer.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: No further ques-
tions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion?
Before calling for the question on Amend-
ment No. 16, the Chair's attention has been
called to the fact that Delegate Boyce's
switch is still not operating and that I per-
haps incorrectly announced the vote on
Amendments No. 14 and No. 15.
Delegate Boyce, will you announce your
vote on Amendment No. 14?
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