repose in the collective judgment of the
majority of the delegates to this Convention.
So in short, we believe that the rules as
they now stand provide adequate protection,
and furnish a guarantee that the minority
report will be printed and treated equally
with the majority report in the opportunity
to reach the floor of this Convention, and
for that reason, the Rules Committee has
reported Motion No. 2 unfavorably, both
in the original form as distributed to you
on September 27 and as modified in the dis-
cussions before our committee with the
sponsors of the motion.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any ques-
tions of the committee chairmen for pur-
poses of clarification? Delegate Johnson?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. President,
Mr. Chairman, is it not a fact that Rule
28 [29] deals with majority and minority
reports, and the amendment thereto, namely
Rule 28A deals only with majority reports?
DELEGATE SCANLAN: That is cor-
rect. Rule 28A, as it now stands, only im-
poses a limitation on the majority report.
That is, the November 17 cutoff applies in
terms only to committee majority reports.
I agree. So if a committee majority report
came in on November 17, then the minority
under the present rules would have at least
three days in which to prepare their re-
ports, since under Rule 3I there has to
be a three session day layover before the
Committee of the Whole could take it up.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: So that, Mr.
Chairman, if the minority were not ready
to report within three days, the Conven-
tion could not receive the minority report
unless the majority of the Convention
agreed to hear it? Should I repeat it?
THE PRESIDENT: Please.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: The question
to the Chairman, Mr. President was, is it
not a fact that under the general order
for the day that a minority report may
not be received if it is not received within
the three days, unless by action of a ma-
jority of the Convention? Isn't it, then
possible under the existing rules that the
Convention would have only the majority
report to consider?
DELEGATE SCANLAN: It is possible
under any set of rules that if a minority
did not act when the time permitted, the
Convention would not be in a position to
consider its report at the same time. The
present rules, specifically Rule 3I [33]
giving a three day delay, and the point I
made earlier, concerning at least one more |
day between the time the majority report
reaches the Committee of the Whole and
the time when the Committee might take
it up, affords the minimum of four days.
Now, I agree it is certainly possible un-
der these rules, or under any type of a
cutoff rule that you enunciate, that a mi-
nority might not be ready to present its
report, in which case the proper procedure
would be to move that the Committee of
the Whole set the matter as a special order
of business one day or two days following
the printing and distribution of the mi-
nority report, provided in any event it shall
be no later than such a date. No matter
what rule we draft, we are certainly always
going to be exposed to the possibility that
a minority for one reason or another will
not get their views to the Convention within
the time permitted by the rule. But as long
as the rule, Rule 27 [28], guarantees the
minority the same and equal treatment with
respect to printing of its report certainly
a minority being discriminated against in
the sense that they were not being printed,
could appeal to that rule, and appeal to the
good conscience of the Convention in sup-
port of a motion to set the matter for
special order of business. I think we have
to assume, no matter what the rules you
make or no matter what cutoff day you
supply, that if the rules are not fairly ad-
ministered first by the presiding officer, and
then secondly by a majority of the Con-
vention, the minority rights will be ignored;
but on the other hand, if the rules are
flexible as we believe they are now, and we
have some trust that a majority will be
fair when the occasion dictates, I think the
present rules stand up.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
is it not also possible that under the exist-
ing rule, the Convention could be required
to consider a majority report and inasmuch
as the minority is entitled to have its re-
port received, that this Convention would
subsequently be required then to consider
the minority report only after considering
the majority report?
DELEGATE SCANLAN: No. As I said
before, if we reach that point where a ma-
jority report were on the general orders of
the day, and the minority, for one good
reason or another had not been able to
finish the preparation and printing of its
report, certainly a motion would be made
either to lay the matter over or to set it
as a special order of the day on a subse-
quent day after the minority report had
been distributed to the Convention. |
