Felt’s Parliamentary Procedure/To Commit or Re-commit

by Orson B. Felt

Layout 2

TO COMMIT OR RE-COMMIT.

104. Resolutions are often offered which are not in the best form to express the judgement or carry out the will of the assembly; or questions may arise upon which the assembly desires more information than is then before it, or that need more careful consideration than can well be given it by the assembly itself, and the members may think of the work of perfecting such a resolution or motion can be more satisfactorily performed by means of a committee to inquire into the merits of the question, put it into proper form for consideration and report its deliberations and recommendations to the assembly for final action. This can be done by a motion to commit, or if the subject has been already in the hands of the committee, to re-commit.

105. A motion to refer to a standing committee take precedence of, but does not cut off, a motion to refer to a special committee.

This motion is usually made upon the first presentation of a question or resolution and the assembly acts upon the report of the committee; it may, however, be referred after discussion and efforts to amend have shown the need of more careful investigation. The motion to commit may be amended by changing the committee, which amendment may refer to the nature of the committee or the number of members to compose the committee, or by giving instructions to the committee. It is debatable as to the propriety of referring the question to the committee, but such debate should not involve the merits of the main question, as that debate will be in order and the question may be fully debated when the committee reports. If however in the motion to commit, or in an amendment, there be instructions as to the main question, then debate may be had on the merits of the main question, and if the motion to commit is adopted it sends all pending motions and amendments to the committee as well as the main question.