48
RULES OF ORDER.
[§ 20
debate,[1] and bring the assembly to a vote upon the pending question. This vote being taken, the effect of the previous question is exhausted, and the business before the assembly stands exactly as if the vote on the pending motion had been taken in the usual way, without having been forced to it by the previous question; so if this vote is reconsidered [§ 27] the question is divested of the previous question, and is again open to debate.
(2) Its effect when either of the motions to Amend [§ 23] or to Commit [§ 22] is pending, is to cut off debate, and to force a vote, not only upon the motions to amend and to commit, but also upon the question to be amended or committed.[2] The Chairman puts to vote all these questions in their order
- ↑ After debate is closed upon a question which has been reported from a Committee, the member reporting the measure has the right to make the closing speech [see § 34].
- ↑ If we consider the motions to amend and to commit as inseparably connected with the question to be amended or committed, so that together they constitute but one question, then it would be correct to say that the only effect of adopting the Previous Question is to cut off debate and to force the assembly to vote upon the one question pending. This will to many be the easiest way to look at this question, and it makes it as simple as adopting an order closing debate [§ 37 (d)], as the latter would have the same privileges, and therefore the same complications as the Previous Question.
