Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1914-01-09
Reform In Legislative Procedure.
BY EUGENE H. WATERS,
Member of the House of Delegates from
Montgomery County.

No subject will come before the Legisla-
ture of Maryland at the coming session Of
more Importance than the reform in the
method of our legislative procedure. This
reform lies at the very foundation of the
right of the people to have every measure
introduced in the Legislature get square
deal before that body.
1t will take away from presiding officer
and certain influential members of a COM
mittee the power quietly to put to death
measures which may be Objectionable to
them or some of their influential friends.
The writer will discuss briefly his own
attitude toward some of the proposed re-
forms.
a. The adoption of the constitutional
amendment permitting the printing of bills
has made 1t possible to do away with che
antiquated methods of engrossing bills by
hand, under which methods mistakes have
been often made and Snakes" intention
ally inserted which either nullified the
whole act or made II vicious.
1t certainly needs no argument to DEM
onstrate the wisdom of both the House and
Senate adopting rules providing for the
printing of all bills. Besides lessening the
opportunity for mistakes and fraud, it
should. if useless printing is done away
with, greatly lessen the expense of the Leg
islature.
(2.) The writer believes that both the
House and Senate should elect their re-
spective committees through committee
on committees. Under our present system
OF appointing committees they can be, and
often are. packed for the very purpose of
killing certain legislation The writer be-
lieves that the method in vogue in the
national House of Representatives is a
good one-to wit, the House elects directly
the Ways and Means Committee, which
committee is ex-officio the committee on
committees. and which appoints the men,
bers of all standing committees of the
House with the approval of the House. No
member of the Committee on Committees
is eligible to appointment to any other
standing committee.
The objection has been made that be-
cause each succeeding House contains such
few members who were in the previous
House the great majority of the members
would be unacquainted with each other,
and therefore would know nothing of any
special qualification that a member might
have for certain committee. The an
swer to this objection is that there are
always enough old members who return
from the different sections of the State
who are well acquainted with the uualih-
cations of new members and even if this
were not true, 1t certainly seems logical
that 1t would be much easier for the MEM
bers Of committee representing the whole
House to become acquainted with the quail
fications of the several members than il
would be for one presiding officer behind
closed doors to do so. The great trouble
with our present system is that members
are often chosen not because of their fit
ness for committee, but because they
hold certain views which are agreeable to
the appointing power. This reform has
worked well in the national House of Rep |
resentatives and there is no reason why it |
should not work in both branches of our |
Legislature.
(3) The proposed reform in regard to
limiting the time within which standing
committees must report all bills is a good
one.
The writer, having been a member of the |
last House Of Delegates and having served |
on the Judiciary Committee, which has
referred to it many of the most important
bills, can see no reason why all bills in
PRODUCED during the first As days of the |
session should not be reported out of COM |
mittee within 80 days from date of refer |
ence, and that all bills introduced after
that period be reported within is days
after reference to committee, except those
introduced during the last is days of the
session. The objection has been made
that this procedure would not be practical
BILE so far as the appropriation bills are
concerned. In the opinion of the writer,
II there is any set Of bills that this reform
should especially apply to it is the appro-
priation bills. Anyone who has had any
experience in Legislation knows that the
way we pass our appropriation bills is
little short of criminal. The bills carrying
appropriations of any importance are Got
together in one bill in committee, which is
known as the omnibus appropriation bill"
This bill is usually held back in committee
until the very last night of the session.
when everything is in a perfect jam; and
will venture the assertion that scarcely
member not on the committee having the
bill in charge knows what the bill contains.
Even If items are discovered that should
not be in the bill. member is afraid to
introduce an amendment, because il pro-
badly would result in the defeat of the
whole measure at that late hour in the
session. There is no reason why all bills
carrying appropriations should not come
out of committee at least 20 days before |
the expiration of the session
an emergency should arise. where |
the House or Senate deemed it wise to |
suspend the rules as to particular bill, it |
could do so, but this would insure the mat
ter becoming public, and If there was any
Interior motive for attempting to keep a
bill back the people would know it.
(4) Another proposed reform is that
the chairman Of a standing committee
shall call a meeting Of said committee on
the written request Of one-third of the
members thereof
Some objection has been made to this
proposal on the ground that the members
of committee representing the minority
party could call a meeting as often as they
saw fit. am not prepared to say that the
minnrity fnau,haFe should No, h.. ~ |