RESOLVED, That Rule 32 of the House which was adopted by the House at its January Session, A.D. 1995, entitled "House Resolution Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the Years 1995-1996"; be and it is hereby amended to read as follows:
Rule (32)(a) The standing and joint committees shall take into consideration all such petitions, resolves, bills, matters or things as may be referred to them by the House with power to report by bill or otherwise; provided however, that said committee shall, whenever possible, consider all bills of substantially the same or of a similar nature at the same time in a manner that is otherwise in conformity with these rules.
(b) A committee shall not consider any public bill or resolution unless it has been reproduced and distributed to its members except by unanimous consent of the members present.
(c) The Chair of every committee shall post, at least three (3) days prior to any committee meeting, a list by number and title of the bills and resolutions to be heard at that meeting. The Chair shall limit such listings to the number of bills or resolutions he or she reasonably expects can be taken up by the committee at the meeting. Any bill or resolution so posted which the committee is not able to take up at the stated meeting must be re-posted as stated above and shall be placed at the top of such subsequent posted list. Such postings shall be made on the House bulletin board. Copies of all posted bills or resolutions shall be provided to all committee members and principal sponsors. A committee shall not hear any said bill or resolution without such notice except by the consent of a majority of its members and with at least one (1) day's notification to the principal sponsor. The sponsor may, however, waive such one-day notification.
(d) Every standing committee shall meet at least once weekly if any requests for hearings on or consideration of bills or resolutions are pending before it. The right to be heard on any such bill or resolution shall be granted upon request to the principal sponsor thereof as provided in these rules, and provided further, however, that any such request shall be make in writing to the Chair, a copy of which is to be given to the reading clerk, no later than ten (10) calendar days following referral of the bill or resolution to the committee; and provided further that, in any even-numbered year, any such request to be heard on any bill or resolution referred to the committee during the immediately preceding session shall be make in writing to the Chair not later than the last legislative day in the month of January.
(e) Upon receipt of a written request by the Chair for committee consideration from the principal House sponsor of a bill or resolution, a copy of which is to be given to the recording clerk, the committee shall grant to said principal House sponsor a hearing on any said bill or resolution within thirty (30) calendar days of the request and provided further that said committee shall grant to the principal House sponsor consideration of his or her bill or resolution within eight (8) legislative days of the committee hearing, unless a later date is otherwise agreed to by the said principal sponsor. The deadline for requests for hearings and consideration shall be the first legislative day after the last day for bill introduction. For the purpose of the rule, consideration shall mean a majority vote on one (1) of the following or conformity with (v).
(i) a motion to report the bill or resolution to the House with a recommendation of passage;
(ii) a motion to report the bill or resolution as amended, or in substitute form, to the House with a recommendation of passage;
(iii) a motion to report the bill or resolution to the House with a recommendation of no passage;
(iv) a motion to report the bill or resolution to the House without recommendation, provided that such action shall require the affirmative vote of four-fifths (4/5ths) of the members present.
A tie vote on any of the motions specified in (i), (ii) or (iii) hereof shall be deemed to be a vote to report the bill or resolution with a recommendation of no passage, and shall be treated accordingly.
Once a committee has considered a bill or resolution the principal House sponsor shall be notified in writing on or before the second legislative day following such actions including the vote tally within the committee and the date thereof, prior to the report being made to the full House. No bill or resolution on which a committee has voted a recommendation of no passage shall be reported unless the principal House sponsor shall, after such notification, request in writing within one (1) week following such notification that a report be made. Committee Chairs shall bring reports of committee actions to the floor no later than two (2) weeks following the committee votes thereon. A committee member may move reconsideration of any vote taken so long as the subject matter of the vote remains in the possession of the committee.
Bills or resolutions concerning appropriations, revenue or expenditures shall be the only bills or resolutions which shall not be subject to the above committee time limits.
In the event a committee shall fail to afford consideration to any bill or resolution within the prescribed time, the principal sponsor may report such failure to the Speaker of the House and the Speaker shall order the immediate discharge of the bill or resolution from a committee to the House floor.
Except in the case of a committee report of a bill or resolution with a recommendation of no passage, all bills or resolutions reported from committee shall be placed on the calendar or, pursuant to the restrictions of these rules, placed on the consent calendar for the required period of time according to these rules before House consideration.
At the time of the receipt of a committee report by the House, the House sponsor of said bill or resolution may move to substitute his or her recommendation as to said bill or resolution in lieu of the committee recommendation as to said bill or resolution. For this purpose, the House sponsor shall be allowed to explain his or her recommendation and the committee Chair shall be allowed to rebut. The Majority and Minority Leaders shall also be allowed to make their explanations.
In the case of a recommendation of no passage, unless the sponsor is successful in substituting his or her own recommendation in lieu of the committee, then all consideration of that bill or resolution shall end for that legislative session.
House Rule 32(e) shall not apply to any bill or resolution which shall have originated in the Senate.
(f) No public bill or resolution which originated in the House shall be considered by a House committee unless the committee has held a hearing on that bill or resolution no later than one (1) week prior to{DEL April 13, 1995,DEL}{ADD April 11, 1996,ADD} and after that date the committees of the House shall not consider public bills or resolutions except those which have been acted upon by the Senate and transmitted by the Senate to the House of Representatives, provided however, that the committee on finance may hear and consider House bills, acts or resolutions after {DELApril 13, 1995DEL}{ADDApril 11, 1996ADD}, except as provided in section (g) hereof, and provided further that the other House committees may complete consideration of not more than three (3) House bills or resolutions of major importance per committee after said date, on which such committee or committees had not been able to complete action, upon approval by the Speaker of a written request from the Chair. All such requests must be filed with the reading clerk no later than {DELApril 13, 1995.DEL}{ADDApril 11, 1996.ADD}
(g) No House bill which relates to an individual's pension or retirement shall be accepted as a committee report from the committee on finance unless it shall have been considered by the committee on or before {DELApril 13, 1995,DEL} {ADDApril 11, 1996,ADD} and shall have been heard in the committee no later than one (1) week prior to that date.
(h) Each bill passed by the Senate and transmitted to the House for concurrence, unless the bill came from a joint committee, shall be referred to an appropriate committee of the House for consideration. Upon receipt of a written request by the Chair for committee consideration from the principal Senate sponsor of such bill, the committee shall, in a timely manner, hold a hearing on the bill and give the bill consideration as described in 32(e). This subsection shall take effect upon adoption of a similar rule by the Senate.
