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Tuesday: Parliamentary Showdown
posted at 2007-05-22 13:58 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
The House Rules committee has agreed to forward to the floor "without prejudice" a proposal for a voter referendum on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The proposal's been around for at least four years, but this is its first committee hearing.
Opponents of the amendment (mostly Dems) say NC already has laws banning gay marriage. They say discrimination shouldn't be written into the Constitution. But supporters (most Republicans) counter that similar laws in other states have been overturned by "activist judges," so a Constitutional amendment is needed.
The proposal now heads to the House floor.
The maneuvering
In Rules today, House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman first tried to re-refer the bill to J1, which, given the upcoming crossover deadline, would effectively have killed the bill for the next two years. His motion was defeated 14-10.
All the Republicans voted against the referral, along with three Dems - Jim Crawford, Dewey Hill (both of whom co-sponsored the bill) and Doug Yongue. Five Democrats failed to show up to vote one way or the other - Paul Luebke, Jennifer Weiss, Dan Blue, Jim Harrell, and Nelson Cole. One Republican was absent: Danny McComas.
After that initial defeat, the bill was postponed while both sides worked to round up their missing members. The Dems managed to bring in Luebke and Weiss, and Blue came in about 20 minutes late. Harrell and Cole both stayed AWOL.
In the meantime, Minority Leader Paul Stam was working up plan B. If the Democrats mustered enough votes to give the proposal an unfavorable report, he was prepared to offer a "minority report"- a little-used parliamentary procedure. If 25% of the members on a committee disagree with the majority's report on a bill, they can propose a minority report to be adopted instead by a majority of the full House. It probably would have passed, forcing the bill onto the floor for a vote.
So out in the hallway, Rules Chair Bill Owens and former Republican Speaker Harold Brubaker worked out a deal to send it to the floor without prejudice. If there's no majority report, there can't be a minority report. It's a standoff, essentially.
What's next?
Good question. If Owens reports the marriage amendment in today, it could be up for a floor vote tomorrow, unless Speaker Hackney derails it by referring it to another committee.
Most bills this session *have* had serial referrals, but those are usually made in advance. This bill wasn't given one, at least initially. (Although you could probably argue that any referendum regarding the state's constitution probably ought to be looked at by a Judiciary committee of some sort.)
Hackney could also put it onto the House floor, where it might very well pass. The amendment proposal has 64 bipartisan sponsors. Many Dems in conservative districts would likely support it. Passage would require a 3/5 vote, or 72 ayes.
So we'll see what happens on the floor this afternoon. Stay tuned.
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