Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-03-07
Record Clarified

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Your reporter covering the
Virginia legislature presented
Sunday a superficial view Of
an important matter. It was
not a balanced news story.
Senate Bill 1923. introduced
by Senator Breeder Of Nor
folk, sought to limit by law
the number Of sponsors Of q
particular piece of legislation
to four in the Senate and 10
in the House of Delegates.
The purpose. as your re-
porter pointed out. was to pre-
vent legislation being intro
duced with enough names on
it to give reasonable assurance
Of it's passage. The purpose
is a worthy one.
But nowhere in the story
did your reporter mention that
the Senate already has a rule
limiting the number Of pa
irons to three; the House has
a similar rule. Rules cannot
be suspended except by two
thirds vote.
What Senator Breeder pro-
posed to do was to write the
Senate rule into law. which
law could not be changed
without the consent of the
House Of Delegates and the
approval of the Governor.
I debated against the Bree-
den bill on the floor Of the
Senate after it had been ap-
proved by unanimous vote Of
the Rules Committee. chair
manned by the Lieutenant
Governor and President Of the
Senate. The Senate agreed
with my view by a vote of %
to II.
I opposed the Breeder bill
on the ground that historically
each legislative body deter
mines its own rules Of pro-
cedure.
Section At of the conStitu-
ton of Virginia says: Each
House shall select its officers.
settle its rules of procedure.
=.
Thus the constitution re-
quires that each chamber act
independently. This interpre-
tation of Section At is con-
Cured in by the attorney
general.
Had the Breeder bill been
enacted into law. a subsequent
session Of the Legislature could
not repeal such law without
the concurrence of a majority
of both houses and the assent
of the Governor; therefore.
each house would be deprived
of it's right to settle its rules
of procedure pertaining to the
number of patrons on a bill
or resolution.
A search of the records shows
that Of approximately 400 bills
and resolutions introduced in
the Senate this session, only
four Cor l per cent of the
totaD carried an overwhelm-
ing number of sponsors-and
the Senate itself gave unan-
imous consent to the intro
duction of those four meas.
ureS.
At times all legislative bodies
find it important or desirable
to introduce legislation with a
large number of sponsors.
Despite the editorial slant
of The Stars Richmond re-
porter. the Breeder bill was
bad legislation and clearly I'M
constitutional. as witness the
opinion of the attorney gen.
eral:
1T is my opinion that
neither the House nor the
Senate can delegate it's respon-
sibility in this respect so that
its right and duty would de-
pend upon the concurrence of
the other body"
The point at issue is not
whether the number of spon-
sors shall be limited, but rath-
er whether the limit shall be
set by the House and Senate
and Governor jointly or by
each house itself.
The responsibility lies with
each house acting independ-
emily, as the constitution
clearly states.
Harry r. Byrd, Jr.
Member, Virginia Senate.
Editors note: The article to
which Senator Byrd refers did
not purport to be a balanced
news story" 1t was an edi-
torial column, and, as such,
had an editorial slant" Sen
ator Byrd is correct in stating
that the article neglected to
mention that each branch of
the Legislature has a rule
limiting the number of patrons
on a bill. The effect Of the
article. however, was to direct
attention to notable instances
in which these rules seem to
have been ignored.)