Assembly Resolution No. 847

BY: M. of A. Barclay

AMENDING section 2 of Rule V of the Assembly
Rules, in relation to ensuring that each member is
entitled to have at least one substantive piece of
legislation discharged from committee and brought to
a vote during each two-year term; amending section 6
of Rule V of the Assembly Rules, in relation to
debates on budget bills or bills accompanied by a
message of necessity; and amending section 9 of Rule
V of the Assembly Rules, in relation to staff,
materials and other perquisites

RESOLVED, That section 2 of Rule V of the Assembly Rules is amended
by adding a new subdivision h to read as follows:

h. Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, during each
two-year term of the Assembly, each member shall be entitled to have at
least one substantive piece of legislation, of his or her choosing,
exclusive of any bill accompanied by a home rule request, discharged
from committee and brought to the floor for a vote on the merits. A
member may bring such bill to the floor for a vote by filing a written
notice with the index clerk of the Assembly on a form provided by such
clerk.

RESOLVED, That section 6 of Rule V of the Assembly Rules is amended
to read as follows:

§ 6. Debate. a. No member rising to debate, to give notice, make a
motion or report, or to present a petition or other paper, shall proceed
until such member shall have addressed the Speaker from his or her place
and has been recognized by the Speaker. While a member is speaking, no
member shall entertain any private discourse or pass between the member
speaking and the Chair.

b. Unless otherwise provided by these Rules, no member shall speak,
except in his or her place, nor more than once on any bill or amendment,
without leave of the House and no member shall speak for more than
fifteen minutes except by consent of two-thirds of the members present.
The floor leader of each conference or his or her designee may be
granted a second, additional fifteen minutes to speak during the debate
on any bill or amendment. All members shall be granted a second,
additional fifteen minutes to speak during the debate on any budget bill
or bill accompanied by a message of necessity. Consideration of any bill
and amendment, not including any budget bill or bill accompanied by a
message of necessity, shall not exceed five hours; with four hours
allocated for debate and up to one hour allocated for explanations of
vote; provided, however that a member desiring to explain his or her
vote upon the final passage of a bill or upon the passage of a
resolution requiring the expenditure of money may make a brief
statement, not to exceed two minutes, in explanation of such vote; and
further provided that in addition to the foregoing, the sponsor of a
bill may make a statement not to exceed five minutes for the purpose of
opening debate on such bill. Except as otherwise provided by these
Rules for concurrent resolutions, no member shall speak more than once

and for no more than five minutes on any resolution without leave of the
House. Debate on any resolution, except as otherwise provided, shall be
limited to thirty minutes. Members may be granted permission to submit a
written statement to extend upon their remarks on the floor for the
record; such remarks must comply in all respects with the rules and
customs and practices of the House relating to debate to be included in
the record.

c. If any member, in speaking, transgresses the Rules of the House,
the Speaker may call such member to order, in which case the member so
called to order shall immediately sit down, and shall not rise unless to
explain or proceed in order.

d. While the Speaker is putting a question, or a roll call is in
progress or a count is being had, no member shall speak or leave his or
her place. When the House shall be equally divided on any question,
including the Speaker's vote, the question shall be deemed to be lost.
All questions relating to the priority of one question or subject matter
over another, under the same order of business, shall be decided without
debate. If any question contains several distinct propositions, it shall
be divided by the Chair at the request of any member, but a motion to
strike out and insert shall be indivisible. All questions of order, as
they shall occur, with the decisions thereon, shall be entered in the
Journal, and, at the close of the session, a statement of all such
questions and decisions shall be printed at the close of and as an
appendix to the Journal.

RESOLVED, That section 9 of Rule V of the Assembly Rules is amended
to read as follows:

§ 9. Staff, materials and other perquisites. Each member of the House
shall be entitled to an equal allocation of printed newsletters and
other printed materials and postage therefor, and stationery and other
similar perquisites, and each member shall receive an equal [allowance]
annual allocation for staff personnel, [except that the allocation of
stationery and other similar perquisites and the allowance for staff
personnel may be greater for members in majority and minority leadership
positions, committee, subcommittee and task force chairpersons and
ranking minority members of committees, subcommittees and task forces.
Such greater allotment or staff shall be commensurate with the
additional duties assigned to such member] regardless of majority or
minority status. Additional central staff may be employed by the
Speaker and the Minority Leader to assist legislative leadership and
members in reviewing, researching and analyzing issues and proposed
legislation and for other administrative, institutional and technical
duties.