950                                              LAWS OF MARYLAND                                     Ch. 11

and "[u]sing the same procedure", for clarity.
Although the Senate and the House could concur by
identical simple resolutions, that procedure seems
needlessly cumbersome. Both the Director of the
Department of Fiscal Services and the Director of the
Department of Legislative Reference believe that a
joint resolution would be used under subsection (a)(3)
of this section, although the Directors indicate that,
in practice, only subsection (b) of this section is
used.

In subsection (b) of this section, the power to
"authorize an amendment of a schedule for ... the
Legislative Branch" is substituted for the former
power to "exercise the powers granted ... by" former
Art. 15A, § 8(b) through (c-l)(3), for clarity.

Also in subsection (b) of this section, the former
reference "adjourned sine die" is deleted as
surplusage.

The Commission to Revise the Annotated Code notes, for
consideration by the General Assembly, that it is
unclear whether the requirement of joint action by the
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Delegates, under former Art. 15A, § 8(c-l)(4) --
and the revision in subsection (b) of this section
is intended to apply if the amendment would affect
only the schedule of the Senate or of the House.

The Commission also notes that the new language in
subsection (d) of this section tries to clarify the
form and manner by which a salary increase is effected
under this section while retaining the limitations
suggested in the former law.

Thus, subsection (d)(1) of this section is limited to
salaries for nonclassified positions since, by
cross-reference to former Art. 15A, § 20(c), former §
20(d) was limited in scope. Since former § 20(d) also
referred only to the "acute emergency provisions of §
8", the general restriction, in former § 8(f), on a
salary increase for another type of position seemed
inapplicable and is not included in subsection (d) of
this section.

However, based on former Art. 15A, § 8(f), subsection
(d)(1) of this section clarifies that approval must be
in the form of a budget amendment under this section
and is limited by the most recently enacted State
budget. Although former § 8(f) also referred to
"supporting documents", this former reference is
unnecessary in the case of nonclassified positions.
See § 7-109 of this title.