Article III

(3) Within 15 days after the beginning of the regular
session of the General Assembly in 1974 and within 15
days after the beginning of the regular session in each
fourth year thereafter, the Commission by formal reso-
lution shall submit its determinations for compensation
and allowances to the General Assembly. The General
Assembly may reduce or reject, but shall not increase
any item in the resolution. The resolution, with any re-
ductions that shall have been concurred in by joint res-
olution of the General Assembly, shall take effect and
have the force of law as of the beginning of the term of
office of the next General Assembly. Rates of compen-
sation and pensions shall be uniform for all members of
the General Assembly, except that the officers of the
Senate and the House of Delegates may receive higher
compensation as determined by the General Assembly
Compensation Commission. The provisions of the Com-
pensation Commission resolution shall continue in force
until superseded by any succeeding resolution.

(4) In no event shall the compensation and allow-
ances be less than they were prior to the establishment
of the Compensation Commission.

SEC. 16. No book, or other printed matter not
appertaining to the business of the session, shall be pur-
chased, or subscribed for, for the use of the members of
the General Assembly, or be distributed among them,
at the public expense.

SEC. 17. No Senator or Delegate, after qualifying as
such, notwithstanding he may thereafter resign, shall
during the whole period of time, for which he was
elected, be eligible to any office, which shall have been
created, or the salary, or profits of which shall have
been increased, during such term.

SEC. 18. No Senator or Delegate shall be liable in
any civil action, or criminal prosecution, whatever, for
words spoken in debate.

SEC. 19." Each House shall be judge of the qualifi-
cations and elections of its members, as prescribed by
the Constitution and Laws of the State, and shall ap-
point its own officers, determine the rules of its own
proceedings, punish a member for disorderly or disre-
spectful behaviour and with the consent of two-thirds of
its whole number of members elected, expel a member;
but no member shall be expelled a second time for the
same offence.

SEC. 20. A majority of the whole number of mem-
bers elected to each House shall constitute a quorum
for the transaction of business; but a smaller number
may adjourn from day to day, and compel the atten-
dance of absent members, in such manner, and under
such penalties, as each House may prescribe.

SEC. 21. The doors of each House, and of the Com-
mittee of the Whole, shall be open, except when the
business is such as ought to be kept secret.

SEC. 22. Each House shall keep a Journal of its pro-
ceedings, and cause the same to be published. The yeas
and nays of members on any question, shall at the call

Constitution of Maryland/803

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 imprisonment,
during the session of the General Assembly, any per-
son, not a member, for disrespectful, or disorderly be-
havior in its presence, or for obstructing any of its pro-
ceedings, or any of its officers in the execution of their
duties; provided, such imprisonment shall not, at any
one time, exceed 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 examine and pass all accounts of the State,
relating either to the collection or expenditure of the
revenue, 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, concern-
ing 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 Library, and all expenditures therein, and upon
all matters of alleged abuse in expenditures, to which
their attention may be called by Resolution of either
House of the General Assembly.

SEC. 25. Neither House shall, without the consent 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 sitting, without the concur-
rent 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 purpose, the Senators shall be on
oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to the law
and evidence; but no person shall be convicted without
the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Senator selected.

SEC. 27.⁵⁴ Any bill may originate in either House of
the General Assembly and be altered, amended or re-
jected by the other. No bill shall originate in either
House during the last thirty-five calendar days of a reg-
ular session, unless two-thirds of the members elected
thereto shall so determine by yeas and nays, and in ad-
amended by Chapter 497, Acts of 1912, ratified Nov. 4,
1913; Chapter 616, Acts of 1955, ratified Nov. 6, 1956; Chapter
161, Acts of 1964, ratified Nov. 3, 1964; Chapter 576, Acts of
1970, ratified Nov. 3, 1970; Chapter 369, Acts of 1972, ratified
Nov. 7, 1972.