Order H.2011 187th (2011 - 2012)

AMENDMENT #1

Mr. Brownsberger of Belmont moves that the bill, H2011, be amended by adding at the end thereof the following new section:

Purchases of goods and services using funds from House operations accounts shall be conducted so as  to achieve good value and so as to assure that, for major purchases, all potential vendors have the  opportunity to make a proposal. In particular, persons conducting procurement for House operations  accounts shall use available statewide contracts whenever practical and, for particular purchases that  are likely to exceed fifty thousand dollars in cost in a single fiscal year, conduct a competitive public  procurement process. A competitive public procurement process shall include a widely published  request for proposals and, to the extent practical, shall use available statewide vendor information  systems. For each purchase exceeding or likely to exceed five thousand dollars in cost in a single fiscal  year, all requests for proposals, all responses to requests for proposals, the contract or contracts  awarded and all invoices submitted pursuant to those contracts shall be retained for at least three years  in a purchasing file. All such purchasing files shall be maintained in a single physical or electronic place  and shall be accessible to the public for review during normal business hours. In the case of purchases  of legal services, purchasing files shall be made public as for any other purchase, but privileged  information pertaining to specific individuals may be redacted from documents available in the publicly  accessible files.  

 

AMENDMENT #2

 

 

Representative Harriett L. Stanley (D- West Newbury) moves that House, No. 2011 be amended to include:

 

 

“All home rule petitions shall be reported upon by their committee of origin within 60 days after being filed and shall be acted upon by the entire House within 120 days of filing; provided, however, that if the home rule petition is not acted upon by the entire House within said time, it shall automatically be deemed engrossed and sent to the Senate.”

 

 

 

 

 

 AMENDMENT #3

Mr. Sciortino of Medford moves to amend the bill in Section 12 at the end of said section by adding the

following new paragraph:

 The Clerk shall make available electronically in real time all items up for consideration before the House including bills, amendments, further amendments, consolidated amendments, reports of committees, orders, resolutions, and the House Calendar. Each member shall have made available to them a personal computer, laptop, or other electronic device with the ability to access such information during formal and informal sessions on the House floor. The Clerk shall work with a Special Committee on Technology and Information Access, which shall consist of three members appointed by the Speaker and three members appointed by the Minority Leader. The Special Committee shall review technology and web interface options to make information electronically available in real time to members and the

public and shall make recommendations for the successful implementation of this rule. Such

recommendations shall be submitted to the Clerk, Speaker, and Minority Leader within six months of

adoption of these rules.

 

 AMENDMENT #4

Mr. Hecht of Watertown moves to amend the bill in line 146 by inserting after the word “which” the

following:- “, subject to the provisions of Rule 30,”

 

 AMENDMENT #5

Mr. Hecht of Watertown moves to amend the bill in line 543 by adding the following sentence:- “All

other appropriation or capital outlay bills shall be made available to the members and the public at least

two calendar days prior to consideration thereof by the House.”

 

 

AMENDMENT #6

Mr. Hecht of Watertown moves to amend the bill in line 756 by adding the following sentence:- “Such

report shall be made available to the members and the public at least two calendar days prior to

consideration thereof by the House.”

 

 AMENDMENT #7

Mr. Hecht of Watertown moves to amend the bill in line 885 by adding the following sentence:- “This

paragraph shall not apply to appropriation or capital outlay bills.”

 

AMENDMENT #8

Rep. John Binienda recommends the following amendment to H. 2011:

H. 2011 is amended by striking out in line 835 the words “may be made to” and inserting in its

place the following: “shall be required in order to amend.”

 

AMENDMENT #9

Ms. Poirier of North Attleboro moves to amend the order in proposed Rule 2, in line 16, by

striking the words, “during formal sessions”.

 

AMENDMENT #10

Mr. Frost of Auburn moves to amend the order after line 800, after omitted Rule 33D, by

inserting the following rule:

“33E. No bill, resolve or order resulting in an increase in the taxation of persons in the

Commonwealth shall be finally acted upon by the House of Representatives except by a call of

the yeas and nays with two-thirds of the members present voting in favor of the increase; nor

shall any such bill, resolve or order be considered for final passage after a date thirty days

preceding the last date set by law for filing nomination papers with the local election authority

for election to the General Court at the next biennial state election. This rule shall not be

suspended except by a vote of two-thirds of the members present and voting thereon.”.

 

AMENDMENT #11

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 16, in

lines 187, 188 and 189, by striking out the following sentence: “The committee shall consist of

eleven members, seven of whom shall be appointed by the Speaker, four of whom shall be

appointed by the Minority Leader.” and inserting in place thereof the following sentence: “The

committee shall consist of eight members, four of whom shall be appointed by the Speaker, four

of whom shall be appointed by the Minority Leader.”

 

AMENDMENT #12

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 16, in line

206, by inserting after the word “merit.” the following sentence: “If the committee determines,

by a majority vote, that a complaint has been made public through the manner in which it was

filed or through an unauthorized leak of information, the committee shall file a report of the

outcome with the Clerk of the House to be made public.”.

 

AMENDMENT #13

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 16 by

adding at the end thereof the following sentence: “At the end of each biennial legislative session,

the committee shall file a report with the Clerk disclosing the number of complaints received, the

number of complaints determined to have merit, the number of complaints determined to be

without merit, and the dates of all committee meetings held during the session; provided, that the

committee’s report shall not contain any information sufficient to identify the source of or person

named in any complaint received by the committee or any other confidential or personal

identifying information.”

 

AMENDMENT #14

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by inserting after proposed

Rule 72, the following new rule:

“72A. Any amendment in the second degree containing language which would create a study of

any part of the subject matter contained in the original amendment, may only be adopted if such

further amendment has the express approval of the sponsor of the original amendment. Express

approval shall be limited to the original sponsor speaking in favor of the further amendment on

the floor of the House during the formal session in which the amendment is offered, provided

that such speech is recorded in the Journal of the House, or the filing of the further amendment

by the original sponsor. If the original sponsor does not provide express approval of such further

amendment, the further amendment may only be adopted by an affirmative vote of not less than

two-thirds of the members on a recorded yea and nay vote.”

 

AMENDMENT #15

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by inserting after proposed

Rule 20B the following rule: “20C. The House shall consider a Resolution no later than March

15 in each year, defining the minimum financial contribution the Commonwealth will make to

cities and towns for chapter 70 aid, so called, and unrestricted general government aid for the

following fiscal year.".

 

 AMENDMENT #16

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 7A, in line

69, by inserting after the word “Scheduling” the words “; provided, that petitions filed or

approved by the voters of a city or town, or the mayor and city council, or other legislative body

of a city, or the town meeting of a town, with respect to a law relating to that city or town shall

not be so referred”.

 

 AMENDMENT #17

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by striking proposed Rule

23A, contained in lines 632 through 637, inclusive, and inserting in place thereof the following:

“23A. No member of the House shall receive privileges or compensation for postage.”

 

AMENDMENT #18

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 52, in

lines 952 to 956, inclusive, by striking out the words “any member who shall vote or attempt to

vote for another member or any person not a member who votes or attempts to vote for a

member, or any member or other person who willfully tampers with or attempts to impair or

destroy in any manner whatsoever the voting equipment used by the House, or change the

records thereon shall be punished in such manner as the House determines; and provided further,

that such a violation shall be reported to the Ethics Committee” and inserting in place thereof the

following: “no member shall cast a vote for another member. In addition to such penalties as

may be prescribed by law, any member who intentionally votes or attempts to vote for another

member in violation of this rule shall forfeit all votes on the matter in question and shall be

publicly censured. The Clerk shall correct the Journal to reflect the changed votes and include a

notation of the violation. Except as heretofore provided, a person not a member shall not cast a

vote for a member. If a person not a member votes or attempts to vote for any member in

violation of this rule, the person in violation shall be barred from the floor of the House for the

remainder of the session and may be further punished in such manner as the House may deem

proper, in addition to such punishment as may be prescribed by law. If a member fails to notify

the Clerk of an absence, as required by rule 48, and said failure results in improper votes, the

member shall be considered in violation of this rule and punished by public censure. The Clerk

shall correct the Journal to reflect the changed votes and include a notation of the violation. Any

member or other person who willfully tampers with or attempts to impair or destroy in any

manner whatsoever the voting equipment used by the House, or change the records thereon shall

be punished in such manner as the House deems appropriate, in addition to such punishment as

may be prescribed by law.”.

 

 AMENDMENT #19

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 9, in line

110, by striking out the words “a monitor” and inserting in place thereof the words “each

member”.

 

 AMENDMENT #20

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 28, in

lines 727 through 733, inclusive, by striking out paragraph (7) contained therein and inserting in

place thereof the following paragraph: “(7) For the purpose of this rule, matters not appearing on

the Calendar which are not before any committee shall be deemed to be before the Rules

committee. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, a bill which has been engrossed by the House

and Senate, shall be placed before the House for enactment. Any member may request that a

matter, engrossed in the House and Senate, be placed before the House for enactment. The

Speaker shall, in response to such a request of a member, put the matter before the House at the

conclusion of the matter then pending.”.

 

 AMENDMENT #21

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by in proposed Rule 52, in

line 938, by striking out the word “two” and inserting in place thereof the word “four”, and in

said rule, in line 939, by inserting after the word “voted” the following: “; provided, that if at any

time during said voting period any standing, joint or conference committee is meeting in public

or executive sessions, the Speaker shall leave the electronic voting machine open for not less

than 5 minutes”.

 

AMENDMENT #22

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 1A, in line

7, by striking out the words “a majority” and inserting in place thereof the words “not less than

two-thirds”.

 

AMENDMENT #23

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 21, by

striking in line 585, the words, “it shall make available to the members” and inserting in place

thereof the following: “it shall file with the Clerk of the House”

 

 AMENDMENT #24

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in by inserting after Rule

1A the following rule: “1B. Insofar as practicable, the Speaker shall provide a schedule of formal

sessions at least fifteen days in advance.”.

 

AMENDMENT #25

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 17A, in

line 383, by inserting after the word “meeting.” the following paragraph: “No matter reported to

the House from an executive session or by the Rules committee in any session shall be taken up

for consideration until twenty-four hours, not including Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays,

shall have elapsed from the time of its reporting, except in the cases of emergency, in which

cases the provisions of this paragraph may be suspended by a two-thirds vote of the members

present and voting.”.

 

AMENDMENT #26

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order after line 800, after omitted

Rule 33D, by inserting the following rule:

“33E. No bill, resolve or order resulting in any taxation or fee increase, or providing additional

appropriations above the budget appropriations approved in the General Appropriations Act for

the current fiscal year, shall be finally acted upon by the House of Representatives until such bill,

resolve or order has appeared on the Legislative Web Page for 24 hours in a conspicuous

location.

 

AMENDMENT #27

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by in proposed Rule 1, in

line 3, by inserting after the word “business.” the following two sentences: “If the House has not

begun proceedings within thirty minutes of the hour to which the House stands adjourned, the

Speaker shall forthwith, and without debate, adjourn or recess the House to a time not earlier

than ten o’clock A.M. on the next succeeding calendar day. For the purposes of this rule,

proceedings shall mean voting and debate.”.

 

 AMENDMENT #28

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 85A by

striking, in lines 1235 and 1236, the words, “outside, independent audits of House financial

accounts be conducted at the end of each fiscal year” and inserting in place thereof the

following:- “audits of the House financial accounts be conducted by the State Auditor, in

substantially the same form as prescribed by section 12 of chapter 11 of the General Laws, at the

end of each fiscal year”.

 

 AMENDMENT #29

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by inserting after proposed

Rule 10A, the following new rule:

“10B. All committee rules and practices that are contained within or referred to by the House

Rules or Joint Rules, other than the internal practices of each committee, shall be within the

domain of the Clerk to enforce in accordance with the Clerk’s duties as official parliamentarian

of the House of Representatives”

 

 AMENDMENT #30

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by inserting in line 391 after

the word “public”, the following language:”by the Clerk on the Legislative Web Page”

 

 AMENDMENT #31

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order by striking proposed Rule

4A, contained in lines 27 through 31, inclusive, in its entirety

;and further by striking in proposed Rule 5, the words “In the event the Speaker fails to appoint

a member to perform the duties of the Chair, the Speaker pro tempore shall be the Acting

Speaker until the Speaker otherwise provides or until a vacancy in the office of Speaker occurs.

In the event that the Speaker pro tempore is absent or is unable to perform the duties of Acting

Speaker, the Majority Leader, the Assistant Majority Leader, the Second Assistant Majority

Leader or other designee shall be the Acting Speaker.” and inserting in place thereof the

following language “In the event the Speaker fails to appoint a member to perform the duties of

the Chair, the Majority Leader, the Assistant Majority Leader, the Second Assistant Majority

Leader or other designee of the Majority Leader shall be the Acting Speaker.”

;and further by striking in line 483, the words “, the Speaker pro tempore,”

;and further by striking in line 632, the words “Speaker pro tempore”

;and further by striking in lines 909 and 910, the words “or a person who has been elected

Speaker pro tempore”

; and further by striking in line 912, the words “Speaker pro tempore”

 

AMENDMENT #32

Mr. Jones of North Reading, Mr. Peterson of Grafton, Mr. Hill of Ipswich, Ms. Poirier of North

Attleboro, and Mr. deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the order in proposed Rule 17, in line

321, by striking out the words “, insofar as practicable”, and in line 322, by inserting after the

word “Representatives” the following: “unless the chair of the committee submits to the Clerk a

written description of the emergency, as defined by rule 17A, that necessitates such a scheduling

and the Clerk makes said description available to the members”.