HOW GOVERNED
1.01 The Speaker of the House shall preside at all
Conventions of the two houses of the Legislature and shall call the members to
order. The Chief Clerk of the House shall be the Secretary and the Sergeant at
Arms of the House shall be the Sergeant at Arms of the Convention.
PRESIDENT'S DUTIES
1.02 The President of the Convention shall preserve order
and decorum. The President may speak on all points of order in preference to
other members and shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal to the
Convention by any member. The President shall rise to put a question but may
state it while seated.
PRESIDENT'S RIGHT TO VOTE
1.03 The President shall have the
right to vote in all cases except appeals from the President's decisions. The
President shall vote last on all questions.
STATING QUESTIONS
1.04 Questions shall be put to the Convention in the
following form: "As many as are of the opinion that (the question) shall pass,
say 'Aye.'" After an affirmative vote is expressed the nays shall be called as
follows: "As many as are of the contrary opinion, say 'No.'" If the President is
in doubt or a division is called, those in the affirmative shall rise first and
those in the negative afterward.
ORDER OF DEBATE
1.05 When any member wishes to speak to the Convention on
any matter, the member shall rise and respectfully address the President, and
not speak further until recognized. The member shall speak only to the question
under debate and avoid personal remarks. When two or more members rise at the
same time, the President shall designate the member to speak first. No member
shall speak more than twice on the same question without permission of the
Convention.
CALLING MEMBER TO ORDER
1.06 If any member of the Joint Convention is called to
order for offensive words in debate, the member calling to order shall report
the words to which exception is taken and the Secretary shall record them. No
member may be called to order for any language used in debate if exception is
not taken before any other member has spoken or any other business has taken
place. A member called to order shall immediately sit down unless another member
moves to permit the member to explain. In any case, the Joint Convention, if
appealed to, shall decide without debate. Only if the decision is in favor of
the member called to order shall the member be at liberty to proceed.
CALL OF THE CONVENTION
1.07 Five members may demand a call of the Convention at
any time except after voting has commenced. When such a call is demanded, the
doors shall be closed, the roll shall be called, the absent members shall be
sent for, and no member may be permitted to leave the Chamber, unless excused by
the President, until the call is lifted. Proceedings under the roll call may be
suspended by a majority vote of all the members of the Convention. A call of the
Convention may be lifted by a majority vote of all the members of the Convention.
ELECTIONS
1.08 In all elections by the Joint Convention, members
shall vote viva voce and the roll of Senate members shall be called first.
Whenever there is an election of any officer in Joint Convention, the result
shall be certified by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
and announced by them to their respective houses. The result shall be entered in
the Journal of each house and communicated to the Governor by the Secretary of
the Convention.
NO SMOKING
1.09 No person is permitted to smoke in the Chamber or
in the gallery during a Joint Convention.
PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE
1.10 The rules of the House shall be the Rules of the
Joint Convention of both houses in all cases in which the foregoing rules are
not applicable.
FORM
2.01 The title of each bill shall
clearly state its subject and briefly state its purpose. When a bill amends or
repeals an existing act, the title shall refer to the chapter, section or
subdivision. Reference shall be made to Minnesota Statutes for the provisions
appearing therein unless reference to previous session laws is required for some
special reason.
Bills shall refer to Minnesota Statutes as follows:
"Minnesota Statutes ..........,
section .........."
Bills shall refer to the session
laws as follows:
"Laws .........., chapter
.........., section .........."
A bill for the amendment of a
statute shall contain the full text of the section or subdivision to be amended
as it appears in the latest edition of Minnesota Statutes unless it has been
amended, in which event it shall contain the full text as amended.
The words and characters
constituting the amending matter shall be inserted in the proper place in the
text and underscored. The words and characters to be eliminated by the amendment
shall be stricken by drawing a line through them. The text of a new section or
subdivision shall also be underscored when a bill amends an existing chapter or
section by adding a new section or subdivision. In the omnibus appropriation
bills required by Joint Rule 2.02, sections making an appropriation or transfer
and not amending a statute or session law need not have new material
underscored. Before a committee favorably reports upon a bill, the chair of the
committee shall see that the bill conforms to this rule. When a bill is printed
in the Journal, the new matter shall be underscored and the matter to be
eliminated shall be stricken by drawing a line through it. A bill drafted by the Revisor of
Statutes for the purposes of correcting errors in Minnesota Statutes need not
comply with the provisions of this paragraph if the bill is labeled "REVISOR'S
BILL" immediately below the title, and if there is attached thereto a memorandum
of information explaining the reasons for the bill.
If the bill is for an original
law and not for an amendment of an existing law, the sections and subdivisions
shall be arranged, subdivided, and numbered in like manner as Minnesota
Statutes. If such a bill assigns to the
sections thereof headnotes or identification by the decimal system of numbering
used in Minnesota Statutes, such headnotes and decimal identification may be
submitted by standing committee chairs to the Revisor of Statutes for
examination. Any such headnotes shall be in bold face, and shall be subject to
the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, section 645.49.
All numbers in titles shall be
expressed in figures. All numbers of section or chapter of law shall be in
figures. In the body of a bill numbers in excess of ten shall be in figures,
except for a special reason they may be written, but when written they shall not
be followed by numbers or parentheses.
A bill may include or be
accompanied by a table of contents.
A bill that repeals a statute may
include or be accompanied by an appendix containing the full text of the section
or subdivision repealed.
A bill containing a
constitutional amendment may only contain the statutory language and changes
necessary to conduct the constitutional election and to implement the
constitutional amendment, should it pass. Extraneous statutory changes or
additional topics may not be included in a bill proposing a constitutional
amendment.
APPROPRIATING MONEY
2.02 The same bill shall not appropriate public money or
property to more than one local or private purpose.
No clause appropriating money for a local or private purpose shall be contained in
a bill appropriating money for the State government or public institutions.
All
resolutions authorizing the issuing of abstracts by the Secretary of the Senate
or the Chief Clerk of the House for the payment of money shall be upon the call
of "yeas" and "nays."
DEADLINES
2.03 The Legislature shall establish by concurrent resolution
deadlines for each regular session. The deadlines do not apply to the House
committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and
Legislative Administration, nor to the Senate committees on Capital Investment,
Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration.
The first deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills in
the house of origin.
The second deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills,
or companions of bills, that met the first deadline in the other house.
A committee has until the second deadline to act favorably on a
bill, or the companion of a bill, that by the first deadline was referred to a
finance committee. The deadline for a committee of either house to act on a bill
that has been recommended favorably by the Legislative Commission on Pensions
and Retirement is the second committee deadline. The major appropriation bills
are exempt from the first two deadlines.
The third deadline is for committees to act favorably on major
appropriation and finance bills.
When a committee in either house acts favorably
on a bill after a deadline established in the concurrent resolution, the bill
must be referred in the Senate to the Committee on Rules and Administration and
in the House of Representatives to the Committee on Rules and Legislative
Administration for disposition. Either rules committee, when reporting a bill
referred to the committee under this rule, may waive application of the rule to
subsequent actions on that bill by other committees.
All bills necessary to implement the governor's budget submitted
by a state agency or department must be made available for introduction within
15 calendar days after the governor's budget was submitted. A bill introduced
after that date must be referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration in
the Senate or the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration in the House
of Representatives and may not be heard without the approval of that committee.
AMENDING BILLS ORIGINATING IN OTHER HOUSE
2.04 Either house shall have the power to amend any bill, memorial, or
resolution passed by the other house.
RECEDING FROM POSITION
2.05 Prior to a Conference Committee on any matter,
either house may recede from its position on any difference existing between the
two houses. In order to recede, and if the matter is not in the possession of a
house, that house shall request return of the matter from the other house. To
recede, a majority of a house shall govern, except in cases otherwise provided
in the Constitution. If the question is put and lost, it shall not be put again
on the same day. A reconsideration of the question shall in all respects be
regulated by the rules of that house.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEES
2.06 In all cases of disagreement
between the Senate and House on amendments adopted by either house to a bill,
memorial or resolution passed by the other house, a Conference Committee
consisting of not less than three members nor more than five members from each
house may be requested by either house. The other house shall appoint a similar
committee.
The manner of procedure shall be
as follows: The house of origin passes a bill and transmits it to the other
body. If the other body adopts an amendment to the bill and passes it as
amended, it shall return the bill with a record of its actions to the house of
origin. If the house of origin refuses to concur in the amendment, it shall ask
for a Conference Committee, appoint such a committee on its part, and transmit
the bill with a record of its action to the other house. If the other house
adheres to its amendment, it shall appoint a like committee and return the bill
to the house of origin.
All Conference Committees shall be open to the public.
As much as practical, meetings of Conference Committees
shall be announced as far in advance as possible, with the intent to provide a
24-hour notice, and actions taken shall be agreed upon in an open meeting. At an
agreed upon hour the Conference Committee shall meet. The members from each
house shall state to the members from the other house, orally or in writing, the
reason for their respective positions. The members shall confer thereon. A
conference committee may not meet between the hours of midnight and 7:00 a.m.,
except that a committee may extend a meeting for up to one hour past midnight by
a vote of two-thirds of the members appointed to the committee by each house.
The chair shall rotate between the Senate and the House of Representatives at
least every calendar day, Sundays and holidays excepted. The conferees shall
report to their respective houses the agreement they have reached, or, if none,
the fact of a disagreement.
If an agreement is reported, the
house of origin shall act first upon the report. A Conference Committee report
must be limited to provisions that are germane to the bill and amendments that
were referred to the Conference Committee. A provision is not germane if it
relates to a substantially different subject or is intended to accomplish a
substantially different purpose from that of the bill and amendment that were
referred to the Conference Committee.
A Conference Committee report may
not appropriate a larger sum of money than the larger of the bill or the
amendments that were referred to the Conference Committee unless the additional
appropriation is authorized by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and
the Majority Leader of the Senate.
A Conference Committee report may
not delegate rulemaking to a department or agency of state government or exempt
a department or agency of state government from rulemaking unless the delegation
or exemption was included in either the bill or the amendment that was referred
to the Conference Committee.
A Conference Committee report may
not create a new commission, council, task force, board, or other body to which
a member of the legislature may be appointed unless the body was created in
either the bill or the amendment that was referred to the Conference
Committee.
If the report is adopted and
repassed as amended by the Conference Committee by the house of origin, the
report, the bill and a record of its action shall be transmitted to the other
house.
Except after the last Thursday on
which the Legislature can meet in regular session in odd-numbered years, and
after the last Thursday on which the Legislature intended, when it adopted the
concurrent resolution required by Rule 2.03, to meet in regular session in
even-numbered years, a written or electronic copy of a report of a Conference
Committee shall be placed on the desk of each member of a house, or delivered
electronically, twelve hours before action on the report by that house. If the
report has been reprinted in the Journal of either house for a preceding day and
is available to the members, the Journal copy shall serve as the written report.
The member presenting the Conference Committee report to the body shall disclose,
either in writing or orally, the substantial changes from the bill or the amendment
as they were last before the body.
ENROLLMENT AND SIGNATURE
2.07 After a bill or memorial or
joint resolution has been passed by both houses, it shall be carefully and
properly enrolled by the Revisor of Statutes under the direction of the
Secretary of the Senate for a matter originating in the Senate or the Chief
Clerk of the House for a matter originating in the House.
The enrollment shall be prepared
on archival quality paper approximately 8 1/2" x 14" in size and may be produced
by means of a copying machine. An enrolled bill shall be labeled "An Act" but
otherwise shall be identical to the bill passed by the Legislature. Other
enrollments shall be identical to the memorial or joint resolution passed by the
legislature.
The Revisor of Statutes shall
obtain the signatures and certificates of the proper officers to the enrollment.
A joint resolution applying to the Congress of the United States to call a
convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States,
ratifying an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposing an
amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, or prescribing the compensation of
judges shall not be presented to the Governor for approval but shall be
deposited by the Revisor of Statutes with the Secretary of State. All other
enrollments shall be presented to the Governor for approval.
SUSPENSION OF JOINT RULES
3.01 Either house may suspend the Joint Rules of the Senate and House by a
vote of two-thirds of its members.
ODD YEAR SESSION ADJOURNMENT
3.02 Adjournment of the regular
session in any odd-numbered year to a date certain in the following year shall
be equivalent to daily adjournment, except that upon adjournment in any
odd-numbered year to a date certain in the following year:
(a) Any bill being considered by
a Conference Committee shall be returned to the house of origin, laid on the
table, and the Conference Committee shall be discharged;
(b) Any bill referred to the
Committee on Rules and Administration in the Senate or the Committee on Rules
and Legislative Administration in the House pursuant to Joint Rule 2.03 shall be
returned to the standing committee to which it was last previously referred;
and
(c) Any bill returned by the
Governor to the house of origin with the Governor's objections following the
adjournment shall be laid on the table.
INTERIM COMMITTEE AND COMMISSION REPORTS
3.03 Except as otherwise provided by law, the report of
any interim committee or commission to the Legislature shall be submitted on
paper 8 1/2" x 11" in size, spiral bound, stapled, or punched on the left edge
to fit a standard size three ring binder intended for that size paper. A brief
summary of the recommendations of the commission or committee shall appear first
and be clearly separated from its findings, discussions, and exhibits. If the
report contains legislative recommendations, a copy of any proposed legislation,
particularly if extensive in character, shall if possible be attached as an
exhibit at the end of the report.
JOINT COMMITTEE
4.01 By February 28 of each
odd-numbered year, or at a date agreed to by concurrent resolution, a joint
committee shall meet to recommend nominees for regent of the University of
Minnesota to be presented to a Joint Convention of the legislature. The members
of the joint committee are the members of the senate and house budget and policy
divisions on higher education. A majority of the members from each house is a
quorum of the joint committee.
The joint committee may recommend
to the joint convention candidates recommended by the advisory council and any
other candidates nominated by the joint committee. Nominations may be made by
committee members only. Nominations must be made for a specified congressional
or student seat, or for any at-large seat. In recommending nominees, the joint
committee must consider the needs of the University of Minnesota. A candidate
other than one recommended by the advisory council may be nominated for
consideration by the joint committee only if the nomination receives the support
of at least three house of representatives members of the committee and two
senate members of the committee. The joint committee must make recommendations
for vacancies on the Board of Regents.
The roll shall be called viva
voce on the recommendation of regents. A candidate must receive a majority vote
of members from the house of representatives and from the senate on the joint
committee to be recommended to the joint convention.
The joint committee must meet to
interview candidates and recommend candidates to the joint convention.
JOINT CONVENTION
4.02 At the Joint Convention of
the Senate and House of Representatives called to elect regents, the joint
committee shall report the name of the person or persons recommended for each
seat. These persons are considered to be nominated. Any member of the
legislature may submit additional nominations. If there is more than one
at-large seat to be filled, all candidates nominated for an at-large seat are
candidates for any of the at-large seats.
The roll shall be called viva
voce on the election of regents. The roll must be called first on congressional
district seats until they are filled, then on the student seat, and then on the
at-large seats.
Each member may cast one vote for
each seat to be filled, but no more than one vote for a candidate.
The
candidate for each seat receiving a majority of the votes cast must be declared
elected. If there is more than one at-large seat to be filled and more than one
candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast, the candidates receiving
the highest number of votes must be declared elected; in case of a tie for the
highest number of votes, the votes must be cast again. If no candidate receives
a majority of the votes cast for a seat, on each succeeding ballot the candidate
with the fewest votes must be dropped from consideration and the votes cast
again until a majority vote is achieved. Any candidate with fewer than 20 votes
on any ballot shall also be dropped on succeeding
ballots.