ing and Arrangement, Report S&D 1. The
report is accepted and referred to all dele-
gates for their information. The report
requires no action by the Convention at
this time.
Next item is consideration of Report No.
R&C 12 of the Committee on Rules, Cre-
dentials and Convention Budget. The Clerk
will read the Report.
READING CLERK: Committee Report
No. R&C 12, Committee Report by the
Committee on Rules, Credentials and Con-
vention Budget, Alfred L. Scanlan, Chair-
man. A report regarding proposed amend-
ments in the Standing Rules of the Con-
vention.
THE PRESIDENT: Committee Report
No. R&C 12 is referred to the Committee
on Calendar and Agenda of the Conven-
tion.
May 1 call the attention of all delegates
to this report. It is hoped that the amend-
ments suggested in this report and the
amendments to be proposed in the oral re-
port of this committee to follow later this
afternoon will be the last amendments to
be proposed to the rules before they are
printed. Will you please, therefore, read
carefully this report. It will be placed on
the agenda at the earliest possible date
for final action by the Convention.
Next item on the calendar as amended
is the report of the Committee on Rules,
Credentials and Convention Budget with
respect to Resolution No. 18. The Chair
recognizes Delegate Scanlan, Chairman of
the Committee and requests that he come
forward to the rostrum.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Mr. Presi-
dent, fellow delegates, the Committee
apologizes for not having before you a
written report regarding the action it has
taken and the recommendations it makes
with respect to Resolution No. 18. How-
ever, we will have, I hope, on the Clerk's
desk the actual proposed amendments to
the rules very shortly.
Resolution No. 18, as you know, was
adopted by the Convention on October 25.
On October 26 a motion to reconsider Reso-
lution No. 18 was made and passed the
Convention and referred the matter to our
committee for consideration and report of
its consequences in the light of Convention
Rule 28 [29]*.
*The number in brackets refers to the
final number assigned to the rule in the
Rules of the Constitutional Convention of
Maryland. |
Convention Rule 28 [29] is the rule
which deals with the committee reports. As
it now reads, it says the affirmative vote of
a majority of the members of a committee
shall be necessary to report a proposal out
of committee, the report of a minority of
at least 20 per cent of the members of any
committee shall be received, et cetera.
The difficulty that would arise should
Resolution No. 18 be adopted was pointed
out in Motion No. 5, the memorandum ac-
companying Motion No. 5—that was the
motion for reconsideration—especially the
last paragraph of that memorandum, by
Delegate Marion and Schloeder, pointing
out that a minority could block an affirma-
tive majority report if non-voting members
of a committee were counted toward a
quorum or toward the necessary majority.
The Committee was unanimous in rec-
ommending that if there is any ambiguity
about Rule 28 [29], no matter what hap-
pens to Resolution No. 18, that Rule 28 [29]
be amended in the following two respects.
That the words "having the right to vote"
be added after the word "committee" in
the second line of Rule 28 [29] and that
the same words "having the right to vote"
be added after the word "committee" oc-
curring in the fourth line of the rule.
The amendment proposed would—pardon
me for a second here. We have the lan-
guage here for the Reading Clerk, 1 be-
lieve.
The amendment proposed by the unani-
mous recommendation of your committee
would eliminate any doubt about the fact
that if you have non-voting members of a
committee, they do not count toward the
requirements in making up the require-
ments of Rule 28 [29] as to the number
necessary to get a majority report out or
as to the number necessary to get a mi-
nority report out.
Turning now to the merits of Resolu-
tion No. 18, the sponsors appeared and
made their arguments. I think the Com-
mittee feels there are respectable argu-
ments on both sides of this issue. I think
it should be pointed out in all fairness to
the President and Vice President, the com-
mittee chairmen and others, that as early
as August 25 the President of the Conven-
tion in a memorandum addressed to all of
us pointed out that he intended to assign
the Vice Presidents and himself to more
than one committee and to make them vot-
ing members of those committees. Specifi-
cally he advised us "in order to provide a
means of coordinating effectively the work |
