of the Senate or House may, when the report comes in, move to substitute the bill accompanying the petition upon which the report is made, or any other bill which is germane, for this adverse report. In all cases, however, the measure must come out of the committee and go to either the Senate or the House.
But let us suppose that no vote is taken by the committee, either because it is difficult to get the members together, or because the measure is unimportant, or because the committee does not wish to take action. What happens under such circumstances?
Under the rules prevailing in our national government at Washington, and under the usual rules of procedure of the State governments, the measure would stay in committee and thus be quietly killed; in those jurisdictions, unless a committee reports favorably on a measure, it never gets to the House or the Senate except of course when both of those bodies vote to instruct the committee to report the measure, and that is a very unusual proceeding. But in Massachusetts everything has to be reported from a committee whether the committee favors it or not; and we thus see one of the chief reasons why the sessions in Massachusetts are so much longer than in most other States. Where matters can be shelved in committee and thus prevented from reaching the legislative body, the bills which the latter has to act on will be naturally fewer and the time taken up in putting them through or in defeating them as well as that spent in lengthy discussions will be cut off.
In Massachusetts a rule of the Legislature[1] requires committees to report on all matters previously referred to them on or before the second Wednesday in March. This time may be extended until the second Wednesday in April.
- ↑ Joint Rule 10.
