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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher,
will you yield to Delegate James?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes, I do.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: The practice is to
handle this by rule. You cannot vote on an
amendment unless a written amendment
is on everyone's desk. The rule can be sus-
pended, but it very seldom is, so as a prac-
tical matter it is covered by the rule. There
are really two situations where the amend-
ments would be considered, as in writing,
where they would not actually be written
into the bill at the time of the vote. One
would be in the second chamber where the
second chamber was considering an amend-
ment. You could vote on the amendment
and then on the bill on final passage, with
the amendments attached. That is one situa-
tion, and the other situation would be
where the bill had been returned to the
house of origin with amendments. In both
of those situations, the amendments under
the rules have to be on the members' desks.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Della.
DELEGATE DELLA: Mr. Chairman,
when the bill is introduced and amended
in the house of origin, those amendments
are printed into the bill, so when you read
the bill you can read the amendments in
the bill itself. When the bill is then
amended in the second house, there must
be five copies of the amendment offered,
and one of those copies, by rule, is given to
the printer and one goes to the journal
clerk, so you have a copy of the amend-
ment. There is no writing in. They must be
typed and offered and then the amend-
ments are offered to the membership, so
they know what they are voting on. When
the amendments are adopted, five copies
of the amendments are attached to the bill
to be returned to the house of origin.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: That last
statement puzzles me a little bit. When the —
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you addressing
a question to Delegate Della?
DELEGATE GLEASON: If I may, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do you yield to a
question, Delegate Della?
DELEGATE DELLA: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed, Delegate
Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: When the five
copies are delivered to the rostrum- with
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the proposed amendment to the second
house, is a copy of that amendment put on
everyone's desk before the vote?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Della.
DELEGATE DELLA: The amendment
is offered by a member, and before the
body votes on that amendment, those mem-
bers had a copy of what they are voting on.
Now, if the amendment is adopted, then
you have 142 copies of that amendment
sent over with the bill and the amend-
ments attached to the bill so that the mem-
bers of the house of origin would know
what amendment was offered to that bill so
there would be no guesswork whatsoever.
The five copies of the amendment offered
to a bill, one goes to the printer, two copies
go to the journal clerk, a copy goes to the
legislative reference, and one copy is used
for the press.
That is the required five copies that must
be filed across the reading clerk's desk.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Let me go
back over the road once more with you, if
I might, because the five copies and the
places they go to are things that are
bothering me. This amendment says the
bill shall not be approved in final form in
each house until the amendments are
printed, or the bill is in writing, so I am
talking about after the bill has left the
house of origin, and it comes to the second
house. It has been amended already in the
house of origin and I understand the
amendments are printed right on the copy
of the bill. It then gets to the second house,
and the bill is up for discussion and
amendments are proposed. Five copies are
put across the desk, and they go to various
sources, as you have indicated. Before the
members vote on that amendment, I gather
from Senator James shaking his head, they
have a copy of that amendment in writing
on their desk.
THE CHAIRMAN : Delegate Della.
DELEGATE DELLA: That is absolutely
true, Delegate Gilchrist.
THE CHAIRMAN : Delegate Gleason.
Delegate Della.
DELEGATE DELLA: Delegate Gleason,
when you offer an amendment, every mem-
ber of that body is given a copy of it. In
addition to the five copies that are at-
tached to the bill, plus the number of
amendments that must be forwarded to
the house of origin. In the house, if we
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