YMCA Youth In Government Overview

Legislative Process Explained

This next section gives a more detailed description of the action that will take place on each bill during the Augusta Session. From Public Hearing to the Vote on the floor these are the steps a bill follows.

Public Hearing

The State of Maine very wisely requires that proposed legislation have a public hearing in front of a legislative committee prior to enactment. This not only gives every citizen of Maine a chance to speak his/her mind on any issue that is before the Legislature. It also gives legislators an opportunity to listen to the reasons for and against a particular bill before they vote. Any citizen may attend a committee hearing a request the opportunity to speak. Paid lobbyist, agents or organizations must register with the Secretary of State.

In the YMCA Model Legislature and Assembly, we follow the same practices as the State in holding committee hearings. Committees are composed of Senators and House members. One Senator will be elected the Senate Committee Chairperson and one Representative will be elected as the House Committee Chairperson. These officers will be elected at training sessions. All participants that are not members of the Lobbyist corps, the newspaper staff, or Governor's cabinet, will be assigned membership to one of the committees by the program staff. Model Legislature and Assembly Committee Public Hearings will be held Friday evening. The Committee Chairs will post a schedule that lists the times that each bill's hearings will be held for their committee. The Chair will begin each hearing at the designated time by introducing the bill by number and title, and calling on first the sponsor, other proponents, then opponents, and final any others that wish to speak on the bill. During the hearing all rules of parliamentary procedure will be observed.

As a general rule, the most persuasive testimony given at public hearings is brief, to the point, easy to understand, and supported by evidence. At the conclusion of a person's testimony the committee may ask questions. When testimony is completed and legislators have no more questions, the public comment part of the hearing of a bill is formally ended with a bang of the chair's gavel.

WORK SESSIONS

These are not intended to be another public hearing, though they are opened to the public. Work sessions are more informal and less emphasis should be placed on parliamentary procedure. the basic purpose of the work session is to allow committee members to discuss the bill thoroughly, draft amendments, and vote on a final recommendation of the bill be to sent to the House and Senate. Members of the public, lobbyists and cabinet may be asked to give input.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

After the committee has ended it's discussion about the bill a Member of the committee must make a motion for a Committee Report. The most often used reports are:

BILL CALENDARS

After the bills finish in committee, they will be delivered to the Speaker of the House Office. The bills will be placed on a calendar that will be listed in the Billbook, announcing the order that bills will be heard in each Chamber. A list of the bill being discussed and the next bills to be heard will be posted inside each chamber. A chart of the action taken on bills will be kept updated by the Secretary of State in the Rotunda at the State House.

Participants may, try to change this order the bills are heard in by, Suspending the Rules of that body to move a bill up or down the calendar. The House or Senate may not move bills that are not in that Chamber at that time. President of the Senate and Speaker of the House will receive the bills their chamber will have first, they will be asked to set up a bill calendar that will list bills by order they will be heard.

HOUSE AND SENATE FLOOR DEBATE

The presiding officers (President and Speaker) will conduct business on all bills in the following order:

ACCEPTING THE COMMITTEE REPORT

The presiding officer will begin each bill be having the clerk/secretary read the bill number and title. The clerk/secretary will end by giving the Committee Report. The presiding officer will then ask if it is the pleasure of the House/Senate to accept that report. If he/she hears no one he/she will bang the gavel and the report will be accepted. This is the point at which most debate on issues begin. Any member but usually the Committee Chair or Co-Chair will begin by making the motion to accept the report. He/She will then go on to explain the committee’s reasons for their report. If another member wishes that the committee report not be accepted he/she may move to accept the minority report on the bill. REMEMBER: You can only move to accept a minority report if there is a divided report.

With the floor now open to debate, members must rise and be recognized by the presiding officer. Members are allowed to speak only twice on each motion, and must receive consent of the body to speak a third time.  

Debate on a bill can end in one of three ways:

1. If no member rises to speak after another member finishes the chair will move the question by asking, “is the pleasure of the house to....(whatever the motion on the floor is)

2. When a time limit that has been set has expired, the presiding officer will say, our time limit having expired is it now the pleasure of the House/Senate to(whatever the pending motion is)

3. When a member, "Moves the previous question". This motion is to end debate, it must be passed by a majority vote. It is debatable but members may only speak to this motion, in other words is the  continuation of debate important. This motion shouldn't be made by a member of the body that has been debating the issue. It would then be seen as a tactic of not allowing others to voice their opinions. Let debate continue until it is run out, or no new issues are being raised.

Regardless of the way the debate came to a close, it must be voted on usually by either going under the gavel or a division. Once debate has been ended, the chair must get a vote on the pending motion of the committee report. He/she will ask," is it the pleasure of the House/Senate to accept the majority or minority report?" The only motion that is accepted here is a call for a Division.

HAVE THE BILL READ

When the vote on the committee report is completed the bill must be read. Youth in Government does only one reading of each bill. Reading of the bill is ceremonial, and you will see in the sample debate (next page) that it rarely is completed. This is because members have a copy of the bill in front of them. The chair will accept a motion that further reading of the bill be dispensed with, and pass the motion under the gavel. This sounds very confusing because both the President of the Senate / Speaker of the House and the Clerk / Secretary will both be speaking at the same time.

The presiding officer will be be recognizing a member that is moving to dispense with further reading of the bill, and then asks if it is the pleasure of the body to not have the bill read. He/She is saying

“Senator/Rep ....(Lastname) moves that further reading of the bill be dispensed with, is it the pleasure of the House/Senate.” (Bangs Gavel) It is a vote.

The Clerk/Secretary are reading the bill word by word until they hear the gavel bang.

HOUSE OR SENATE AMENDMENTS

Once the body has decided on a committee report, the presiding officer will ask if there are any House/Senate Amendments. If a member wants to make an amendment to the bill, they must go to the Clerk / Secretary and get an amendment form. When the presiding officer asks if there are any amendments the member must:

PASS THE BILL TO BE ENGROSSED

This step is to have the bill passed to be printed in it's final form. This is the final act, in the actual legislature after a bill is engrossed it goes to be printed in the final form passed on the floor.

ENACT THE ENGROSSED BILL

The final step, it is just procedural in the Model Legislature and Assembly. Enactment signifies the bill is now to be sent to the other body, if the other body has already acted on it, then on to the Governor's desk.

Debate on the floor of the House and Senate

The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House are responsible for seeing that business is transacted in their separate houses. It is not their intent to override the wishes of the members of the Senate or House, but sometimes to conserve time they move on motions so quickly that the new legislator, unfamiliar with the procedures doesn't understand what is taking place. This "railroading" is an ordinary procedure done in the name of efficiency and is an accepted practice. Be prepared for it !!!!

If you don't understand what is happening on a bill, stand up and ask for a "POINT OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE". This means you don't understand what is going on. Then let Presiding officer explain what is happening, and will slow the process down so you can understand what is going on. Please understand if you don't understand chances are others are feeling the same way. This will slow the process down for a bit and allow you and others to catch back up.

GETTING THE FLOOR

A member of the House or Senate to be able to speak must be recognized by the presiding officer.  To gain recognition to "Get the Floor", the member must rise, and when no one else is speaking or the presiding officer is waiting for motion, and say (LOUDLY), "Mr/Madam Speaker(House) or President(Senate)." When the presiding officer has recognized you. You should begin by introducing yourself, your name and your town, then go on with you comment or motion. You have the floor until you are finished speaking. If you wish to make a motion it is best that you make the motion, then ask to speak on that motion. When you have finished your statement or motion, you should sit down. No member should be standing while another member is speaking.

VOTES ON THE FLOOR

All motions must be voted upon. There are several types of votes that you will encounter. They are:

#1 Under the Gavel:

This will be the most used, on many motions the presiding officer will say, "Is it the pleasure of the House/Senate to ........" If he/she hears no one wishing to speak to that motion he/she will bang the gavel. Once the gavel has fallen, all members have voted yes on that motion. If you do not want to vote yes on that motion you must rise and call for, " A Division". The presiding officers will use this method of passing motions to speed up the process, be sure you are aware of what you are saying yes to.

#2 Voice Vote:

If a member of the House/Senate stands and calls for "A Division", the presiding officer will then ask for all those in favor of the motion to say "YEA". Then he/she will ask for those opposed to say "NAY". He/she will then make a ruling as to which side will prevail. If a member of the body feels the vote was too close for the chair to make a clear decision, he/she must rise and again call for "A Division".

#3 Standing Vote:

To make a clear decision on the motion the presiding officer will ask that all members stand and remain standing until they are counted. Then they will ask for all opposed to rise and remain standing until counted. The clerk/secretary will do the count. The chair will then announce the results of the count.

#4 Roll Call:

A rarely used vote in which each member individually is asked to say yea or nay on the motion. It takes a great deal of time, but does give record of each members vote. We recommend that this form be used very rarely because of the time involved.