806/Maryland Manual
SEC. 22. Each House shall keep a Journal of
its proceedings, and cause the same to be
published. The yeas and nays of members on any
question, shall at the call of any five of them in
the House of Delegates, or one in the Senate, be
entered on the Journal.
SEC. 23. Each House may punish by imprison-
ment, during the session of the General Assem-
bly, any person, not a member, for disrespectful,
or disorderly behavior in its presence, or for
obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its
officers in the execution of their duties; provided,
such imprisonment shall not, at any one time, ex-
ceed ten days.
SEC. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire,
on the oath of witnesses, into all complaints,
grievances and offences, as the grand inquest of
the State, and may commit any person, for any
crime, to the public jail, there to remain, until
discharged by due course of Law. They may ex-
amine and pass all accounts of the State, relating
either to the collection or expenditure of the reve-
nue, and appoint auditors to state and adjust the
same. They may call for all public, or official
papers and records, and send for persons, whom
they may judge necessary in the course of their
inquiries, concerning affairs relating to the public
interest, and may direct all office bonds which
shall be made payable to the State, to be sued for
any breach thereof; and with a view to the more
certain prevention, or correction of the abuses in
the expenditures of the money of the State, the
General Assembly shall create, at every session
thereof, a Joint Standing Committee of the Senate
and House of Delegates, who shall have power to
send for persons, and examine them on oath, and
call for Public, or Official Papers and Records,
and whose duty it shall be to examine and report
upon all contracts made for printing stationery,
and purchases for the Public offices, and the Li-
brary, and all expenditures therein, and upon all
matters of alleged abuse in expenditures, to which
their attention may be called by Resolution of ei-
ther House of the General Assembly.
SEC. 25. Neither House shall, without the con-
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three
days, at any one time, nor adjourn to any other
place, than that in which the House shall be sit-
ting, without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of
the members present.
SEC. 26. The House of Delegates shall have
the sole power of impeachment in all cases; but a
majority of all the members elected must concur
in the impeachment. All impeachments shall be
tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that pur-

Article III
pose, the Senators shall be on oath, or affirma-
tion, to do justice according to the law and evi-
dence; but no person shall be convicted without
the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Senators
elected.
SEC. 27." Any bill may originate in either
House of the General Assembly and be altered,
amended or rejected by the other. No bill shall
originate in either House during the last thirty-
five calendar days of a regular session, unless
two-thirds of the members elected thereto shall so
determine by yeas and nays, and in addition the
two Houses by joint and similar rule may further
regulate the right to introduce bills during this
period; nor shall any bill become a law until it be
read on three different days of the session in each
House, unless two-thirds of the members elected
to the House where such bill is pending shall so
determine by yeas and nays, and no bill shall be
read a third time until it shall have been actually
engrossed or printed for a third reading.
Each House may adopt by rule a consent cal-
endar procedure permitting bills to be read and
voted upon as a single group on both second and
third readings, provided that the members of each
House be afforded reasonable notice of the bills
to be placed upon each consent calendar. Upon
the objection of any member, any bill in question
shall be removed from the consent calendar.
SEC. 28." No bill, nor single group of bills
placed on the consent calendar, shall become a
Law unless it be passed in each House by a ma-
jority of the whole number of members elected,
and on its final passage, the yeas and nays be re-
corded, and on final passage of the bills placed
on the consent calendar the yeas and nays on the
entire group of bills be recorded. A resolution re-
quiring the action of both Houses shall be passed
in the same manner.
SEC. 29. The style of all Laws of this State
shall be, Be it enacted by the General Assembly
of Maryland: and all Laws shall be passed by
original bill; and every Law enacted by the Gen-
eral Assembly shall embrace but one subject, and
that shall be described in its title; and no Law,
nor section of Law, shall be revived, or amended
by reference to its title, or section only; nor shall
any Law be construed by reason of its title, to
grant powers, or confer rights which are not ex-
pressly contained in the body of the Act; and it
shall be the duty of the General Assembly, in
" Thus amended by Chapter 369, Acts of 1972, ratified No-
vember 7,1972.
" Thus amended by Chapter 369, Acts of 1972, ratified No-
vember 7,1972.