Bill Text: NJ AR16 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Amends Assembly Rules 10:9 and 10:12 regarding the availability of bills, resolutions, amendments and substitutes to committee members and the public prior to committee meetings.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State Government Committee [AR16 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-AR16-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman VINCENT J. POLISTINA
District 2 (Atlantic)
Assemblyman JOHN F. AMODEO
District 2 (Atlantic)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman McHose and Assemblyman Chiusano
SYNOPSIS
Amends Assembly Rules 10:9 and 10:12 regarding the availability of bills, resolutions, amendments and substitutes to committee members and the public prior to committee meetings.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Assembly Resolution amending Assembly Rules 10:9 and 10:12.
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Assembly Rule 10:9 is amended to read as follows:
10:9. Committee Meetings and Agenda, Notice.
a. The Chair shall advise the majority office and the Office of Legislative Services of the date, time, location and agenda for each committee meeting. The Office of Legislative Services shall prepare the official notice of each committee meeting and distribute that notice to the members and the public at least five days prior to the meeting, unless, by special order of the Speaker, the five day notice is waived.
b. No more than seven bills or resolutions may be considered at a committee meeting, other than an Appropriations Committee meeting, on a day when the General Assembly is [in session] meeting except by special order of the Speaker. No more than 12 bills or resolutions may be considered by the Appropriations Committee at a committee meeting on a day when the General Assembly is meeting except by special order of the Speaker.
c. No bill or resolution may be considered at a committee meeting unless it has been available to the committee members and the public in the Legislative Information and Bill Room for at least one full business day prior to the committee meeting. Any bill or resolution may be considered by a committee without the requisite availability to committee members or the public if, with a quorum present, all members of the committee present agree, by motion, to consider the bill or resolution.
2. Assembly Rule 10:12 is amended to read as follows:
10:12. Actions on Bills and Resolutions.
A committee may, on motion, report a bill or resolution without amendment, with amendment, or by committee substitute. On motion, a committee may also table a bill or resolution or adopt an amendment to a bill or resolution. No motion to amend a bill or resolution or report a substitute bill or resolution shall be considered unless the amendment or substitute bill or resolution is available to the committee members [in writing prior to the motion] and the public in the Legislative Information and Bill Room for at least one full business day prior to the committee meeting. Any amendment to a bill or resolution or substitute bill or resolution may be considered by a committee without the requisite availability to committee members or the public if, with a quorum present, all members of the committee present agree, by motion, to consider the amendment or substitute bill or resolution.
3. This resolution shall take effect on the 30th day after passage.
STATEMENT
This resolution amends Assembly Rule 10:9 first by dividing the existing Rule into subsections a. and b. for the purpose of clarity and to accommodate a new subsection c. Within subsection b., two changes are made and both are of a technical nature. When a major change to the Assembly Rules was passed in 1997, due to the different meanings of the word "session," whenever the intent of that word was to refer to a meeting of the General Assembly where bills and resolutions would be voted on final reading, "session" was changed to "meeting." Conformity with that plan is the reason for the first change in subsection b. The second change, the addition of "committee," is for clarity.
Subsection c. requires that all bills and resolutions to be considered at a committee meeting must be available to the committee members and the public in the Legislative Information and Bill Room for at least one full business day prior to the committee meeting. Bills and resolutions may be considered at the committee meeting without the requisite availability to the committee members or the public if, with a quorum present, all members of the committee present agree, by motion, to consider the bill or resolution. For the purposes of compliance with the one full business day requirement, it is the intent of the sponsor for one full business day to be considered to be from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
This resolution also amends Assembly Rule 10:12 and places the same availability requirements on amendments to bills and resolutions and committee substitutes as have been placed on bills and resolutions in Assembly Rule 10:9. The same override provision applies.
The purpose of these amendments is to allow committee members and the public to better understand the bills and resolutions before they are considered by a committee and to better understand any proposed changes to the bills and resolutions either through amendments or substitution.
The delayed effective date is to allow the Legislative Information and Bill Room to prepare for handling proposed committee amendments and substitutes which currently are not usually provided to the bill room in advance.
