This resolution replaces the Assembly’s procedural rules for the 2025–26 regular session. It sets internal governance: officer selection, quorum and floor procedure, the creation and staffing of committees, and detailed processes for bill referral, amendment, and voting.
The text also establishes the Committee on Rules’ extensive administrative powers, new audit requirements, and a standing Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee with specified complaint and hearing procedures.
The rules matter because they are the operating manual for lawmaking and oversight. They fix voting thresholds and timelines (quorum, suspension and amendment rules), define when meetings must be public versus when closed sessions are allowed, and create institutional checks — audits and an ethics process — that affect how Members, staff, and outside actors can work with the Assembly.
Compliance officers, committee staff, and lobbyists should read the provisions that change committee referrals, disclosure and hearing practices, and limits on floor access and communications.
At a Glance
What It Does
The resolution adopts a full set of Standing Rules that govern organization (officers, quorum), committee structure (32 standing committees and subcommittees), meeting openness (default public, defined closed‑session exceptions), and procedural mechanics for bills, amendments, and votes. It gives the Committee on Rules broad authority over referrals, staffing, budgets, and audits, and creates an Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee with timelines and procedures for complaints and hearings.
Who It Affects
All Assembly Members and staff, committee consultants and chairs, the Office of the Chief Clerk and Sergeant at Arms, lobbyists and accredited media, and anyone who participates in committee hearings or files ethics complaints. The rules also impose obligations on outside contractors selected to perform independent financial and performance audits.
Why It Matters
These rules determine floor and committee workflow, transparency, and accountability for the next session — including who controls bill referrals, how confidential legal matters are handled in closed session, and the process for adjudicating member misconduct. Operational choices here change how quickly and visibly the Assembly conducts business and how much authority rests with the Speaker and the Committee on Rules.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The resolution is a self-contained rulebook for the Assembly’s 2025–26 session. It starts by naming the chamber’s officers and specifying election rules for most offices; it fixes quorum at 41 and requires roll calls and reasons for absences each day.
It then explains how to adopt, suspend, and amend the Standing Rules themselves, distinguishing between temporary suspensions and amendments that require a recorded majority.
Committee organization is central: the rules create 32 standing committees (by subject) and make those committees the primary investigatory bodies. Meetings are presumptively open; the rules define what qualifies as a meeting and lay out specific closed‑session exceptions (personnel matters, security, privileged legal advice, and real‑property negotiation), along with procedural steps — public notices, legal memos justifying closures, and post‑session disclosure obligations for counsel memoranda.
The Committee on Rules is empowered as an executive committee with authority over referrals, staffing, budgets, contracts, and to adopt additional policies governing cameras, recordings, and spending from the Assembly Operating Fund.On accountability, the rules require an annual public operating‑fund report, an annual independent financial audit (competitive bid, public within 180 days after fiscal year end), and a separate performance audit of administrative operations. They create a six‑member Subcommittee on Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation Prevention and Response to review complaint handling and suggest procedural reforms.
The Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee is established with detailed complaint, investigation, and hearing procedures: composition rules, time limits for filing, investigative steps, public‑record rules for final findings, and voting thresholds for committee action.The text also contains extensive floor and committee procedure: limits on bill introductions (35 per Member), rules for author’s amendments, timing requirements for analyses before third reading, Internet‑publication requirements for Senate amendments and final forms (generally 72 hours), rules governing Consent Calendar items, and many specific vote thresholds for motions (e.g., 41 votes for certain actions, 54 votes for special orders). Finally, the rules restrict certain behaviors on the Floor — use of cell phones to call or communicate with lobbyists, floor access rules for lobbyists, attire expectations, and firearms prohibitions — and set procedures for staff training, ethics orientation, and employee hiring documentation.
The Five Things You Need to Know
A quorum is 41 members; most suspensions of rules require a simple majority, but two‑thirds suspension is required for rules that demand a two‑thirds vote.
The Assembly creates 32 named standing committees and treats those committees as the body for investigations and oversight; the Speaker appoints membership and chairs.
The Committee on Rules must procure an annual independent financial audit (public within 180 days) and a separate performance audit of administrative operations; auditors are selected by a majority of the Committee on Rules via competitive bidding.
The Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee is a six‑member body appointed by the Speaker (three from each of the two largest parties) with specific timelines: complaints must be filed within 12 months of discovery or 3 years of the alleged violation, and the committee must act on threshold determinations within 120 days (with limited extensions).
Meetings are presumptively open; closed sessions are limited to enumerated purposes (personnel, security, privileged legal advice, and real‑property negotiations) and require a legal memorandum describing the basis for closure to be submitted and retained under a statutory exemption.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Officers, quorum, and convening procedures
This section specifies who counts as general officers (Speaker and leadership positions), which officers must be elected by the full membership, and how the Chief Clerk coordinates publication titles. It fixes operational basics: the Speaker (or Speaker pro Tempore) sets meeting times, calls the Assembly to order, and the rollcall process documents attendance and reasons for absences; forty‑one members form a quorum. Practically, these provisions allocate routine procedural power to the Speaker while preserving the membership’s voting role for electing certain officers.
How the Assembly adopts, suspends, and amends its rules
Adoption of the standing rules requires a majority recorded vote of the membership; suspension rules distinguish temporary suspension (generally by majority, but two‑thirds where required) from amendment (which requires a majority recorded vote via resolution). The section references Mason’s Manual as the fallback authority for procedural gaps. For day‑to‑day operations this creates a predictable hierarchy: written standing rules first, temporary majority suspensions second, and Mason’s Manual last.
Committee creation, scope, and administrative authority
The Assembly establishes a set list of 32 standing committees and treats most as investigating committees with subpoena, staffing, and budget access. The Speaker determines committee size and appointments; committees must avoid duplicative studies without Committee on Rules approval. Crucially, the Committee on Rules is framed as an executive committee with powers to refer bills, hire and discipline Assembly staff, allocate operating funds, and make policy on recordings and use of facilities — concentrating operational control and oversight authority in that committee.
Default openness and narrow closed‑session exceptions
Meetings are defined broadly and are presumptively open with public notice as set by the Joint Rules. Closed sessions are permitted only for specified reasons: personnel matters, safety and security, privileged legal advice in connection with litigation, and real‑property negotiations. The rule requires public announcement of the closure basis, a counsel memorandum describing legal authority and factual predicates, and places that memorandum under a specific disclosure exemption — creating a formal record while simultaneously carving out confidentiality for legal work.
Committee on Rules as budgetary and administrative hub; audit requirements
The Committee on Rules can refer bills, appoint employees, allocate Assembly Operating Fund money, and adopt subordinate policies. It must publish an annual operating fund report, contract for an independent financial audit each fiscal year (with public release within 180 days), and procure performance audits of administrative departments. The committee can delegate powers to the Speaker and appoint a Chief Administrative Officer subject to ratification; these mechanics institutionalize oversight but create a central node of administrative authority.
Dedicated review process for workplace misconduct procedures
A six‑member subcommittee under the Committee on Rules will periodically review complaint handling for harassment, discrimination, and retaliation affecting Members and staff, and recommend changes. Its composition is prescribed — including co‑chairs of the Legislative Ethics Committee — which integrates workplace policy review directly with ethics and rules oversight.
Formalized complaint intake, investigation, and hearing process
This section creates a six‑member Ethics Committee appointed by the Speaker with balanced party membership and co‑chairs; it may initiate investigations and receive verified complaints. The rule sets filing limits (12 months from discovery or three years from the act), initial jurisdictional screening within 30 days, preliminary sufficiency review, investigation, and timelines for hearings and final determinations (with specified extensions). Findings are public records when final; many investigatory documents remain confidential except as provided. The committee requires specified voting composition to act and provides rights to counsel, subpoenas, and appeal‑style procedural protections.
Bill introduction limits, amendment process, publication requirements, and motion thresholds
These provisions cap bill introductions at 35 per Member, set committee referral and re‑referral mechanics, and require analyses and printing timelines before second and third readings. They require a 72‑hour Internet publication for Senate amendments and final bill forms (with limited emergency waivers), set author and committee amendment processes, and codify vote thresholds for a range of motions (41 votes for many recorded actions, 54 votes for setting special orders). The rules also define Consent Calendar procedures and inactive file mechanics — all of which shape throughput and strategic timing for sponsors and staff.
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Who Benefits
- Members and leadership seeking predictable procedure — clear timelines for amendments, committee referrals, and publication requirements reduce uncertainty about when a bill can be voted on or must wait.
- Public and journalists — stronger open‑meeting defaults, required analyses before final votes, Internet publication requirements, and mandated public audits increase transparency into chamber business and spending.
- Assembly employees and prospective hires — required ethics and harassment prevention training and clear application and disclosure rules create standard expectations for onboarding and workplace conduct.
- Watchdog groups and investigators — the Ethics Committee’s formal complaint process, public final findings, and subpoena authority give outside actors a defined path to raise concerns and obtain remedies.
Who Bears the Cost
- Committee on Rules and Assembly administration — new audit requirements, public reporting, and budget allocations will increase procurement and oversight responsibilities and require staff time to manage competitive bids and disclosures.
- Authors and committee staff — the bill‑intro limit, timing rules for amendments, and requirements for committee analyses and reprints impose scheduling constraints and additional drafting workload.
- Lobbyists and some external advisors — tighter floor access rules, a prohibition on using cellular calls on the Floor, and limits on communication with Members while on the Floor reduce informal contact channels and require adjustments to customary lobbying practices.
- Assembly Operating Fund — the cost of annual independent financial and performance audits, plus potential increased administrative expenses to support investigating committees and required reporting, will be drawn from the Operating Fund.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between increasing transparency and accountability through audits, public analyses, and open‑meeting rules, and concentrating administrative power in the Committee on Rules and the Speaker to ensure efficient legislative operations; each advance toward oversight or speed creates corresponding risks — either diluting public scrutiny through privileged closures and delegated authority, or slowing the legislature with procedural safeguards.
The rules pursue transparency and formal oversight while simultaneously granting substantial administrative authority to the Committee on Rules and the Speaker. That consolidation expedites decisions — referrals, staffing, budgets — but heightens risk that procedural control becomes a gatekeeping lever for policy and committee access.
The audits and public reporting mandate accountability, but the rules leave several implementation details open: the scope parameters for performance audits, how much staff resource allocation will be required to meet competitive‑bid procurement timelines, and whether the Committee on Rules’ selection of auditors will be subject to conflict‑of‑interest safeguards beyond majority vote selection.
The closed‑session regime walks a fine line: it requires counsel memoranda justifying closures (which strengthens a public record) while exempting those memoranda from public disclosure under the Legislative Open Records Act — a built‑in tension between transparency and privileged legal strategy. The Ethics Committee’s procedural floor provides deadlines and public outcomes, but it also centralizes initial screening and substantial discretion in a politically appointed body; that creates both efficiency and the potential perception of partisan handling unless strong procedural neutrality is enforced.
Finally, some emergency provisions (e.g., referrals while in recess during a pandemic) give the Chairperson of the Committee on Rules and the Speaker discretionary power to act outside normal timelines; those carve‑outs are useful in crises but raise questions about checks on emergency authority and retrospective review of emergency referrals.
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