Speaker Murphy's ruling on motion on HJR 6

House Speaker Pat Murphy's office released the text of his ruling that a motion to bring House Joint Resolution 6 to the floor was out of order:

House Joint Resolution 6 proposes an amendment to the state Constitution specifying that

marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that is valid or recognized

in the state.

It was introduced on March 13, 2009 and was referred to the State Government

Committee. According to Joint Rule 20 (the funnel), March 13 was the last date that a

House bill or joint resolution could be reported out of committee in order to be placed on

the House calendar and remain eligible for consideration. The House was in session on

March 13 only to read in newly introduced bills, including HJR 6. The State Government

Committee was not scheduled to meet that day. Consequently, because it was filed so late

in the session, HJR 6 could not have been reported out of committee in order to be placed

on the calendar and thus was never eligible to be considered this year.

Still, House Rule 60 permits a bill or joint resolution to be withdrawn from committee

and placed on the regular calendar by a vote of at least 51 House members. The bill or

joint resolution must have been in committee for 18 legislative days following notation of

the referral to committee in the House Journal. The notation of referral of HJR 6 appeared

in the March 13 Journal. Since a “legislative day” is defined as one when the House

meets in session, the first day that HJR 6 would be eligible to be withdrawn from

committee would be April 9.

The question is whether a House Rule 60 permits withdrawal of a bill from committee

after the deadline set by Joint Rule 20 for placing bills on the House calendar. It is the

decision of the chair that withdrawing a bill from committee amounts to a “reporting out

of a standing committee” for purposes of Joint Rule 20. Consequently, House Rule 60

must be invoked prior to the deadline imposed by Joint Rule 20. Therefore, the motion to

withdraw HJR 6 is out of order.

If the chair were to rule otherwise, the House rule allowing the body to withdraw a bill

from committee and place it on the calendar could be used to circumvent the deadline

imposed in the joint rule. Using the withdrawal motion, the House could continue to

bring bills out of committee long after the deadline set in joint rules without suspending

the joint rules.

There have been two instances in the past two years where a legislator has used Rule 60

to attempt to withdraw bills from committee. In both cases (once in 2007 and once in

2008) the motion to withdraw was made in the days leading up to the deadline referenced

in Joint Rule 20.

The procedure for passage of a constitutional amendment requires approval by two

separate General Assemblies. Thus, whether HJR 6 is approved this year or next year is

inconsequential, since it must ultimately be approved a second time in either 2011 or

2012.