Senate Resolution No. 18

Introduced By harp, halligan

By Request of the senate rules committee

A Resolution of the Senate of the state of Montana revising certain Senate Rules.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

That the senate rules be amended as follows:

"S30-60. Committee reports to Senate. (1) Reports of standing committees shall be read on Order of Business No. 2, and no debate may be had on any report unless a minority report has been submitted.

(2)  Committee reports may recommend approval or disapproval, with or without amendment. They may not be reported to the Senate without recommendation.

(3)  Any Senator seeking a reconsideration of the Senate's action on the adoption of a committee report shall do so on Order of Business No. 6 by motion to reconsider. Any Senator may make such motion and need not have voted on the prevailing side. This rule applies notwithstanding any joint rule to the contrary.

(4)  The Rules Committee and conference committees may report at any time, except during a call of the Senate or when a vote is being taken."

"S30-140. Ethics Committee. (1) The Ethics Committee shall meet only upon the call of the chair after the referral of an issue from the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee may be convened to consider the referral of a matter to the Ethics Committee upon the request of a Senator. The Rules Committee shall prepare a written statement of the specific question or issue to be addressed by the Ethics Committee. The issues referred to the Ethics Committee must be related to the actions of a Senator during a legislative session.

(2) The matters that may be referred to the Ethics Committee are:

(a) a violation of:

(i) 2-2-103;

(ii) 2-2-104;

(iii) 2-2-111;

(iv) 2-2-112;

(b) the use or threatened use of a Senator's position for personal or personal business benefit or advantage; or

(c) any other violation of law by a Senator while acting in the capacity of Senator.

(3) If there is a recommendation from the Ethics Committee, the recommendation is made to the Senate."

"S40-40. Reading limitations. (1) Every bill shall be read three times prior to passage, either by title or by summary of title as provided in these rules.

(2)  No bill or resolution shall have more than one reading on the same day except the last legislative day.

(3)  No amendment may be offered on third reading."

"S40-60. Scheduling for second reading. (1) All bills and resolutions that have been reported by a committee, accepted by the Senate, and reproduced shall be scheduled for consideration by Committee of the Whole.

(2)  Until the 50th legislative day, 1 day must elapse between receiving the legislation from printing and scheduling for second reading for consideration by Committee of the Whole.

(3)  Legislation shall be arranged on the agenda in numerical order unless bills are grouped as companion bills or are placed in order otherwise by the Senate or Committee of the Whole."

"S50-20. Orders of business. After prayer, roll call, and report on the journal, the order of business of the Senate is as follows:

(1)  communications and petitions;

(2)  reports of standing committees;

(3)  reports of select committees;

(4)  messages from the Governor;

(5)  messages from the House of Representatives;

(6)  motions;

(7)  first reading and commitment of bills;

(8)  second reading of bills (Committee of the Whole);

(9)  third reading of bills;

(10) unfinished business;

(11) special orders of the day; and

(12) announcement of committee meetings.

To revert to or pass to a new order of business requires only a majority vote. Unless otherwise specified in the motion to recess, the Senate shall revert to Order of Business No. 1 when reconvening after a recess."

"S50-160. Voting on second reading. (1) On Order of Business No. 8, in addition to other methods, a recorded vote may be made in the following manner: the chair may call for a voice vote to accept or reject a question. If the vote is other than unanimous, the chair may ask that the lesser number on the question indicate their vote by standing. The Secretary will then record the vote of those standing. The chair may then rule that unless excused those not standing and present have voted on the prevailing side of the question and that their vote be recorded as such. If there was a unanimous voice vote, all those present will be recorded as having voted for the question.

(2)   Except as provided in subsection (3), if a motion to recommend that a bill "do pass" or "be concurred in" fails in the Committee of the Whole, the obverse, i.e., a recommendation that the bill "do not pass" or "be not concurred in", is considered to have passed. If a motion to recommend that a bill "do not pass" or "be not concurred in" fails in the Committee of the Whole, the obverse, i.e., a recommendation that the bill "do pass" or "be concurred in", is considered to have passed.

(3) If a motion under subsection (2) fails on a tie vote, the bill remains on second reading."

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