Montana labor news., 1936-03-12
Present Legislative
Procedure
By W. J. PRIEST


Let me illustrate the metnOQ OF pass
ing laws by a twohouse Legislature.
A bill is introduced, let us say, in
the House, and by the House referred
to a committee, whereupon the COM
mittee holds hearings at which all per-
sons interested on either side Of the
controversy have an opportunity to be
heard. When the hearings are finish
ed, the committee debates the ques-
ton in all its phases. After it has
concluded its consideration and delib-
Grafton, it reports the bill to the House.
Under the rules of the House, the bill
comes up for discussion and debate.
All members of the House have the
right to be heard. This bill is argued
in all its phases and then the House
votes upon it. If the bill is passed,
the House sends it to the Senate. The
Senate refers it to the standing conf
mittee, and everybody again has the
right to be heard. As a rule, the same
people who have been heard by the
House committee come again at their
own expense and at a sacrifice OF their
time and are heard by the Senate COM
mittee. After they have exhausted the
subject again, the Senate Committee
considers and celebrates upon it. Then
they report the bill to the Senate and
there the members of the Senate de-
bate it. They consider it from all an
giles. They go over practically the
same ground that has been gone over
by the House. Perhaps they amend it
in some particular, and in this form
they pass the bill.
The bill is then returned to the
House for action upon the Senate
amendments, and usually, as a matter
of form, THE House rejects the Senate
amendments, and the bill is sent to
conference. Practically all legislation
over which there is any controversy
goes to a conference committee. The
conferees, usually three from the
House and three from the Senate, take
up the bill for consideration. As a
rule their Deliberations are held be-
hind closed doors. There is no roll call
There is no provision of law for a
record OF any Of the proceedings of the
conference committee. The confer
ence committee perhaps writes a new
bill. The conferees modify it with
out any hearings, without any public
ity, and without any record vote. II
they agree, they report it to the House
and Senate.
The conference bill comes up in the
House and Senate, and it must be
voted up or down, without amendment,
There is no such thing as the amend
ment OF a conference bill. Members Of
the House and the Senate may find in
it provisions which they think are
wrong. They cannot move to strike
them out. If good provisions have
been left out by the conference com
mittee, they cannot move to insert
them. They must accept the evil in
order to get the good. If they want
to reject the evil, they must likewise
reject the good. This places the mem
bers Of the House and the Senate in a
Sary unfavorable and unfair light.
F
Notifications or changes in a bill,
which have been made without public
discussion, without the knowledge OF
the public, without any roll call, and
without any record, must be approved
as a whole or disapproved as a whole.
If the House of the Senate reject the
conference report, it goes again to
conference, and the last days Of a SEES
sion especially, this means death to the
bill.
THEORY AND PRACTICE
1t is ~contended by those who oppose
the o~ne-house legislature that rules
could be made for governing a confer
ence committee by which a record
could be kept Of its proceedings and
by which the proceedings could take
place in public. 1t is also contended
that the power of the conference COM
mittee to write any provisions into any
bill can also be restricted by parlia-
mentary rules.
In theory, under general parliament
Sary law, the conference committee is
limited in its jurisdiction to actual dis
agreements between the two houses.
In the Federal Congress, the rules Of
the respective bodies provide that if a
conference committee writes any pro-
vision into a bill that is not in either
the House or the Senate bill, or strikes
any provision which is in the same
form in both the House and Senate
bills, the. report Of the conference
committee will be subject to a point Of
order. Similar rules prevail in some
of the state legislatures; but l under
stand that the conference committee is
thus limited in a great many of the
TE--4.z 4 H. Al