Know the Rules and Use Them.

If you paid any attention to today’s South Carolina Senate Finance Committee meetings to discuss budget provisos, on more than one occasion you heard a Senator say that, “We need to apply Rule 24,” and the discussion was over.

What do you mean you don’t know what Rule 24 is? Everybody knows what Rule 24 is. Don’t they?

No, and they shouldn’t be expected to.

Here’s what South Carolina Senate Rule 24 (Part A) says:

A. Clauses in Bill Must Be Germane

No clause shall be inserted in a Bill or Resolution unless the same is germane to the Bill or Resolution. In order to be germane, an amendment must be a natural and logical change or expansion directly related to the specific subject of the Bill or Resolution, as defined in the Bill or Resolution, and must not raise any new or independent matter different from the specific subject of the Bill or Resolution. Any perfecting amendment must be germane to both the amendment to be perfected and the underlying Bill or Resolution and must not offer a new proposition or substantially alter the main amendment.

Matter which is germane to the subject of the General Appropriation Bill and any Supplemental Appropriation Bill shall be defined as those things which reasonably, specifically, and inherently directly relate to the raising or spending of revenue for or in the fiscal year for which the bill applies and do not temporarily or permanently add, amend, or repeal a portion of the general permanent laws of South Carolina. Nothing in this paragraph prohibits the temporary suspension of any permanent law.

The provisions of this rule must be strictly construed.

So, what does that mean?

On the surface, it makes sense. It says if you have an amendment to a piece of legislation in the Senate (this rule doesn’t apply in the SC House), your amendment has to relate to the legislation you’re amending. What is really does is often allow the Senate (even just one Senator) to technically kill an amendment instead of taking an up-and-down vote on the amendment.

Use the rules to your advantage.