3158

VETOES

must be clearly defined, however, and probably
should include some reasonable time within which
the committees must act, if they are going to act
at all."

Unpublished Opinion of the Attorney General (Tenn. 1975).
See also, Schwartz, supra; Stewart, supra.

IV.

THE NECESSARY AND PROPER CLAUSE

Maryland Constitution, Article III, Section 56,
provides:

"The General Assembly shall have power to pass
all such laws as may be necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the powers vested, by
this Constitution, in any Department, or office
of the Government, and the duties imposed upon
them thereby."

Relying upon the landmark decision in Mcculloch v.
Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 wheat.) 316 (1819), the Atkins majority
concluded:

"The necessary and proper clause authorizes
Congress 'to exercise its best judgment in the
selection of measures, to carry into execution
the constitutional powers of government,' 17 U.S.
(4 Wheat.) at 20, and 'avail itself of
experience, to exercise its reason, and to
accommodate its legislation to circumstances,' 17
U.S. (4 Wheat.) at 415.

"Where there has been no violation of
separation—of—powers principles or of any
specific provision of the Constitution, the
necessary and proper clause can authorize a given
method of obtaining a desired result, as well as
ground substantive provision (as in McCulloch)."

Atkins v. United States, supra, 556 F.2d at 1061.

In our view, this rationale provides even greater
support for the authority of the General Assembly of
Maryland to enact a legislative veto provision such as House
Bill 619; for, as we have previously noted, the legislative
authority which the sovereign People have delegated to the
General Assembly is, significantly unlike that which they
have delegated to the Congress, plenary. Thus, although it
is amply there, we need not look to the necessary and proper
clause or any other provision of the Constitution of
Maryland in order to ground a substantive act of the General