THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Do 1 gather
a report of this nature, which calls for no
action on the part of the Convention, is one
which may not necessarily come back to
the floor again?
THE PRESIDENT: No, on the con-
trary, this report as I understand it, will
call for action by the Convention either to
approve or disapprove. At the proper time
determined by the Committee on Calendar
and Agenda it will be on the calendar, and
will probably be referred to the Committee
of the Whole for debate and recommenda-
tion to the Convention.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Next item is intro-
duction and first reading of proposals..
Before we come to that, however, there
are memoranda accompanying Delegate
Proposals No. 195, No. 287, and No. 322 by
Delegate Finch.
There is only one proposal today, Dele-
gate Proposal No. 443. The Clerk will read
the proposal.
READING CLERK: Delegate Proposal
No. 443, by Delegate Gallagher. Title,
A PROPOSAL that a five-member redis-
tricting commission shall be established
for congressional districting and legislative
districting and apportionment one year
prior to each statewide general election.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Proposal
No. 443 is referred to the Committee on
the Legislative Branch.
Are there any motions or resolutions? If
not, that concludes the business of the Con-
vention for the moment other than an-
nouncements.
Prior to recognizing the Chairman of the
Committee on Calendar and Agenda to
move that the Convention resolve itself into
the Committee of the Whole, I would like
to comment very briefly on the procedure
to be followed when the Convention is re-
solved into the Committee of the Whole.
I point out to you that when the Com-
mittee of the Whole concludes its delibera-
tions, the Committee will rise and report
to the Convention. Accordingly, when the
Committee rises, will all delegates please
remain seated because the session of the
Convention will immediately resume. It
will not have adjourned.
As 1 indicated to you, the Parliamen-
tarian has prepared a memorandum high-
lighting fairly briefly the procedures of the |
Committee of the Whole. Unfortunately, it
is not available for you today in printed
form. I think I can summarize very briefly
the salient provisions so that you may have
them in mind.
The Committee of the Whole is, as its
name implies, a Committee of the Conven-
tion, the presiding officer is therefore the
Chairman and not the President of the
Convention.
When you desire the floor, therefore, ad-
dress the Chair as "Mr. Chairman" and
not as "Mr. President."
The Committee of the Whole does not
adjourn, has no power to adjourn. Instead
it rises. Its session ends when the Commit-
tee rises. At the proper time Delegate
Powers will move that the Committee rise
and it then will report to the Convention.
A motion for the previous question is not
in order in the Committee of the Whole
unlike in the Convention. In other words,
you cannot shut off debate by such a mo-
tion.
In the present instance there is no limi-
tation on debate in the Committee of the
Whole other than the Convention Rule
which limits debate to fifteen minutes per
delegate.
In other sessions, as you all know, the
Committee on Calendar and Agenda will
propose a debate schedule, which will limit
debate in accordance with a prearranged
scheme between the proponents and oppo-
nents on any particular proposition. The
Committee did not deem it wise or neces-
sary that that be done in connection with
the matter which will be before the Com-
mittee of the Whole this afternoon. Ac-
cordingly, there is no limitation on the de-
bate.
Unlike the Convention, the delegates are
not limited to one speaker on a question.
Therefore, a delegate, although limited to
fifteen minutes at any one time, may speak
more than once in the Committee of the
Whole.
Very briefly, the procedure in the Com-
mittee of the Whole will be that the Chair
will call to the Clerk's rostrum the Chair-
man of the Committee for a brief presen-
tation of the report of the Committee. This
will be followed by a very brief period of
questions solely for the purpose of clari-
fication. This is not a period of debate
either by the Chairman of the Committee
or by the delegates. Its sole purpose is pre-
sentation of the report and questions to
clarify the report. |
