People's House Rules Highlights

  1.  Session starts at 8am and finishes at 10pm unless during a State of Emergency declared by the Governor only to pass what could not otherwise be passed during a regular session.
  2.  Speaker either elected by majority party vote or rotated daily based on districts’ seniority starting at one.
  3.  All committees appointed by Speaker or Clerk of House by request or blind drawing.  No person can sit on more than 3 committees.  All appointments receive a majority floor vote with those getting the most votes assigned to committee.  2 members out of 10 on a committee must be of the minority party.  All votes must be open to the public, printed, and on the website.
  4.  Special committee formed only in the case of an emergency.
  5.  Every representative can submit up to 3 proposed bills and shall list them in order of priority.  Each bill shall be heard in committee with an opportunity for public hearing.  Every proposed bill shall get equal public hearing time allotted at a half hour unless the majority of the committee votes to extend the time to hear additional testimony.  This shall not take away from hearing any other bill allotted for the day.  All priority one bills must be heard and released from committee before moving to priority two bills.  And so on, for priority three bills.
  6.  Each member shall get one bill that is introduced to the whole House starting in order of those released from committee first.  Each bill shall have a 24 hour notice posted and given to representatives.  Each member shall be given the opportunity to speak if they so choose but for no longer than 5 minutes.  At the point that every member has had one potential bill voted on by the entire body, the process starts over again for a second legislative bill cycle.  Every bill shall be read on 3 different days, unless 2/3 of the House shall dispense of this rule.  Every vote shall be recorded in writing and available to access by the public.
  7.  Only Secret Oath is confidential if communication by the Governor.  All other secret oaths are prohibited by the Missouri Constitution.
  8.  We are ensuring that we use Jefferson rules of Order and not Mason’s Rules of Order.
  9.  Committee for emergency is well defined.
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