Reports

§ 5. Reports. a. No committee shall vote to report a bill or other matter unless a majority of all the members thereof vote in favor of such report. Each report of a committee upon a bill shall have the vote of each Senator attached thereto and such report and vote shall be available for public inspection. A member's vote on any matter before the committee shall be entered by the member on a signed official voting sheet delivered to the Committee Chair. Any standing committee having secondary subject matter jurisdiction over a bill may request the chair of the committee having primary subject matter jurisdiction over said bill (which is the committee to which the said bill has been referred by the Majority Coalition Leaders pursuant to Rule VII) to commit the bill to the committee with secondary subject matter jurisdiction either when the bill is still in the primary committee or after it has been reported to the calendar. If the chair of the primary committee refuses said request, then the committee having secondary jurisdiction, through its chair, may request the Majority Coalition Leaders to consider such secondary referencing. If a secondary reference is so made, the secondary committee shall consider the bill forthwith and return said bill to the primary committee or the calendar, as the case may be, along with the secondary committee's recommendations. All committee reports, after the second Friday in June, shall be made directly to the Committee on Rules. Notwithstanding any provision of Rule VII, the Committee on Rules shall have the authority to introduce and refer bills to itself and shall also have the authority to refer to itself any bill from any standing committee. Every report of a committee upon a bill which shall not be considered at the time of making the same, or laid on the table by a vote of the Senate, shall stand upon the calendar in the order of first report with the bill and be entered upon the journal. b. Each bill reported by a standing committee shall be accompanied by a report, and the Democratic Conference shall file a Democratic Conference committee report within seven days of the bill being reported out of committee and said reports shall be filed with the journal clerk. The report of a committee upon any matter referred to it shall upon request include a brief statement of the opinion of any member or members of the committee voting in either the majority or minority. c. Where a "home rule" request is required as provided in any section of Article IX of the Constitution, such request, certificate or message must be filed with the Journal Clerk of the Senate before final passage of such bill. d. Where a message of necessity is received from the Governor, such message shall be filed with the Journal Clerk of the Senate upon final passage of the bill.