We were anxious to stay away from the
holidays; the closer one got to Christmas
and New Year, the less likely that the or-
ganization session, which is mentioned
earlier, could be utilized to best advantage.
Consequently, we decided upon the second
Wednesday of December following the elec-
tion.
Turning now to legislative sessions, I
should say that this probably was the area
where we had the greatest stalemate in
the Committee. It is important, I think,
to be precise about the meaning of termi-
nology. There was considerable argument
for what is popularly termed continuous
sessions of the General Assembly, rather
than following the present practice here in
the General Assembly of the seventy-day
session with a thirty-day extension under
stipulated circumstances. There was a
large body of Committee members who felt
that it was rather impossible in 1967 to
look forward even five, ten, fifteen or
twenty years and say with any degree of
certainty how many days a year the Gen-
eral Assembly would have to be in session
in order to be an effective legislature.
If one recognizes that within a short
period of time, scarcely within the span
of a single decade, the budget has gone
from $146 million to over $1 billion a year.
and the sheer workload of going through
it would be enough to decide against try-
ing to set a definite limit upon the meeting
time of the General Assembly.
The argument to the contrary was this:
that the General Assembly, being composed
of human beings, would be prone to pro-
crastination and that if it did not have
some particular deadline to which it would
address itself and its schedule, it would
never come to anend.
This was an argument which was made
by a substantial number of legislators
themselves, who felt that a deadline was
necessary. The problem arose, however, not
in recognizing the principle, but in apply-
ing it and coming up with a sufficient num-
ber of days. It was asked, why restrict the
legislature to a ninety-day session or a
seventy-day session; why make it an in-
voluntary part-time body? How could you
possibly hope to strengthen it, to put it on
a par with the Executive and Judiciary
Branches of Government, which meet con-
sistently throughout the year? There is no
part-time Governor, no part-time judicial
system. These other two branches of the
government do in fact work through-
out the entire year, and if the idea was to |
upgrade the legislature, shackling it and
manacling it with specific time limitations
seemed most unwise.
Consequently, the Committee adopted
the following compromise: the General As-
sembly shall meet up to a period of 90 days,
may extend itself for an additional period
of 30 days by a majority vote, and by a
three-fifths vote may extend itself an addi-
tional 30 days, so that there exists within
the framework of section 3.12 the possi-
bility that a General Assembly may go 150
calendar days.
The compromise seemed to provide suffi-
cient time for not only the foreseeable
future, but the remote future as well, and
those members of the Committee who had
opted to give the General Assembly the
power to determine its own length of ses-
sions agreed, or a portion of them agreed
to the point where we were able to obtain
a sufficient majority to make it a Commit-
tee recommendation.
Reading the precise language of 3.12,
"The General Assembly may provide by
law for an organization session prior to
the convening of the regular session; the
General Assembly shall convene in regular
session on the third Wednesday of Janu-
ary of each year, unless otherwise pre-
scribed by law, and may continue in ses-
sion for a period not longer than 90 days,
provided that by the affirmative vote of a
majority of the members of each house a
session may be extended for a period not
longer than 30 days, and that by the affirm-
ative vote of three-fifths of the members
of each house a session may be extended a
second time for a period not longer than
30 days. The governor may convene a spe-
cial session of the General Assembly at
any time, and must convene a special ses-
sion upon. the written request of three-
fifths of all the members of each house.
The Presiding Officer of the House of Dele-
gates and the Presiding Officer of the Sen-
ate, acting concurrently, may convene a
special session of the General Assembly at
any time."
I have already discussed the 90-30-30 com-
promise. I point out to you that at the out-
set of section 3.12 we provided for the first
time for an organization session prior to
the convening of the regular session.
The purpose of this session is one which
members of the legislature have desired to
achieve for quite some time. The idea, of
course, would be that the legislature would
meet, .would elect its presiding officers,
could accept bills which had been filed, |
