Debate or discussion in parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies. It is part of the common law originating primarily in the practices of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from which it derives its name refers to discussion on the merits of a pending question; that is, whether it should or not be agreed to. Robert's Rules of Order Robert's Rules of Order is the short title of a book containing rules of order intended to be adopted as a parliamentary authority for use by a deliberative assembly notes that "Debate, rightly understood, is an essential element in the making of rational decisions of consequence by intelligent people."[1] Indeed, one of the distinguishing characteristics of a deliberative assembly A deliberative assembly is an organization comprising members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions is that "It is a group of people, having or assuming freedom to act in concert, meeting to determine, in full and free discussion, courses of action to be taken in the name of the entire group."
Under RONR, the right of members to participate in debate is limited to two ten-minute speeches per day on a question;[2] Riddick's Rules of Procedure Riddick's Rules of Procedure is a parliamentary authority - a manual on parliamentary procedure written by Floyd M. Riddick and co-authored by Miriam Butcher. The book, based on Riddick's experience as parliamentarian of the United States Senate as well as the procedures of assemblies using parliamentary manuals such as Robert's Rules of Order, is also specifies a default limit of ten minutes.[3] However, these limitations can be loosened or tightened through motion (parliamentary procedure)s In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. In a parliament, this is also called a parliamentary motion and includes legislative motions, budgetary motions, supplementary budgetary motions, and petitionary motions. These can bring new business before the to limit or extend limits of debate The default norm is allowing each member of a deliberative assembly to make two ten-minute speeches, with a requirement that a member wait for other members who have not spoken on the question to speak before making his second speech; or to go into a committee of the whole A Committee of the Whole is a device in which a legislative body or other deliberative assembly is considered one large committee. All members of the legislative body are members of such a committee. This is usually done for the purposes of discussion and debate of the details of bills and other main motions or quasi committee of the whole, or to consider informally a measure; or to adopt a special rule of order or standing rule A standing rule is a rule that relates to the details of the administration of a society and which can be adopted or changed the same way as any other act of the deliberative assembly. Standing rules can be suspended by a majority vote for the duration of the session, but not for longer changing the limitations on debate.[4]
Mason's Manual Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, commonly referred to as Mason's Manual. This 700+ page book serves as the official parliamentary manual of most state legislative bodies in the United States. "Adopted as the authority on questions of parliamentary law and procedure in California, it is to legislatures what Robert's Rules of Order is provides that in state legislative bodies:[5]
| “ | No member has the right to speak more than once on the same question at the same stage of procedure on the same day, or even on another day, if the debate be adjourned. However, if a bill be read more than once on the same day,a member may speak once on each reading. Members may be permitted to speak again to clear up a matter of fact, or merely to explain some material part of their speech, and while they do not have the right to discuss the question itself, they may be permitted to do so...The rule providing that members shall not speak more than once on the same measure, at the same stage of procedure, applied to continued debate after adjournment or postponement. In practice, a member is often given the privilege of speaking a second time on a question after others who desired to speak have spoken when that member can explain any point misunderstood and present facts to refute arguments by those opposed. The rule that no one shall be permitted to speak a second time until all others who desire have spoken should not be so strictly enforced that someone who has spoken cannot clear up some question that has arisen in debate. | ” |
Some motions are not debatable. This includes most secondary motions that are applied to undebatable motions.
References
- ^ RONR (10th ed.), p. 373
- ^ RONR (10th ed.), p. 375-376
- ^ Riddick & Butcher (1985). Riddick's Rules of Procedure, 1985 ed., p. 178
- ^ RONR (10th ed.), p. 378
- ^ National Conference of State Legislatures (2000). Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, 2000 ed., p. 85–86
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