Peterson said that could be something of a hurdle. They will lose votes on the budget trying to remove it, Peterson said. Both those items were left out of previous bills the House has seen. That s where the confusion came in, Peterson said. Peterson said he had checked with the legislative staff to find out exactly what the amendment entailed.
General practice is for the amendment to be read aloud before a vote, then voted on.
But because amendments read somewhat cryptically they generally list lines to be removed or phrases to be added without recapping the entire bill the only way for legislators to know exactly what they are voting for is if they actually check the amendment against the bill, or get clarification from staff, Peterson said. I was surprised. But those who didn t check the amendment had a whole different surprise. Things happened really quickly, Peterson said. Many members who voted for it now say they didn t understand the impact of the amendment.