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I urge you to reject the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, since Mr. Case does not have any
time left, I will just ask the question. He
need not bother to reply.
Was he quoting from God when he said
"Thank God for it," or was he quoting from
Mr. Case? I have a hard time following
when remarks go into the paragraph.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition?
Delegate Case, you have the floor again
since nobody else desires to speak in op-
position.
DELEGATE CASE: I had to cut my
quote short, Delegate Gallagher, because
time was running out, and I appreciate
very much your giving me this opportunity
to expand it.
The Eagleton Report says as follows: "A
number of members of the General As-
sembly when asked whether they favored
the present constitutional system under
which the legislature had no power to in-
crease the executive budget replied the sys-
tem works well now. Another — " meaning
another legislator — "who was asked the
same question, answered 'Thank God
for it.' ".
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor?
Delegate Storm.
DELEGATE STORM: This is in favor
of the original amendment, or the amend-
ment to the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: This is in favor of
Amendment No. 2, the Hanson amendment,
as modified.
DELEGATE STORM: It was modified,
I guess. I am still in favor of it, although
not as much. (Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm, the
Chair is advised by the parliamentarian
that his ruling before was in error in that
you did have the right to object because
the amendment was not printed. It is now
printed and I have had it distributed. I
think perhaps we had better follow the
procedure of treating it as an amendment
to the amendment.
Therefore, will you please, everyone,
mark the amendment H as Amendment 2
to Amendment No. 2?
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We will, therefore, vote separately on
the question of whether the amendment
should be made, and following that, on
Amendment No. 2. I would hope in the
absence of any objection that we could con-
tinue the debate as applying both to the
amendment and to the amendment to the
amendment so as not to waste time.
You may proceed.
DELEGATE STORM: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Frankly, I would prefer this Amendment
No. 2 to have come before us a long time
ago. I have been asking myself how far
the sponsors of this amendment would go
in their efforts to increase the powers of
an already strong executive.
Now I see that they do make sense and
they are consistent, and I now join them.
Since we did go a little bit too far with the
executive, I think it is only logical that we
should really give the power that is en-
visioned here to the legislature, because
frequently in the debate I have been con-
fused when people kept saying that the
attorney general and comptroller were re-
sponsible for not letting the governor go
ahead. I kept telling them it is not those
officers, it is the legislature.
Now they are giving the legislature a
chance to assert itself. I think now their
position and mine go together. I am sorry
we could not have left the status quo more
or less with the strong governor, with the
budget power and all that, and not all these
other frills ; but since we have gone that
far, certainly I agree we should give the
legislature what I feel is a very necessary
balancing power against this new and very
strong-fisted governor we have created.
I hope you will defeat the amendment
to the amendment and adopt the amend-
ment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Beatrice
Miller, do you desire to speak in opposition
to the amendment?
DELEGATE B. MILLER: No, sir. I
wish to speak in favor of the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hodge
Smith, do you desire to speak in opposition
to the amendment?
DELEGATE J. H. SMITH: Mr. Chair-
man and members of the Committee: I, like
Delegate Clagett, do not understand much
about this high finance and budget, but his
ancestors have been whispering back here
to me, and I am in much better position
to hear them than he is.
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