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Committee of the Whole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Committee of the Whole is a device in which a legislative body is considered one large committee. All members of the legislative body are members of such a committee. This is usually done for the purposes of discussion and debate without the worry that anyone will try to make a motion.
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In The House of Commons, a Committee of the Whole is when all the MPs sit in the chamber in one large committee. It is chaired by the deputy speaker or the deputy chair of committees. It uses committee rules rather than House procedures. In the past, the committee of the whole has been used to do a majority of bills instead of those bills being sent to a smaller committee. Though it is not used very much for this any more as the workload of MPs got too much. Now the Committee of the Whole is used mostly for monetary bills and on rare occasions to expedite the passage of other legislation (Source:Jackson and Jackson, Politics in Canada, pg 320)
In the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, when the debate of the second reading resumes, members debate the general merits and priciples of the bill. At the committee stage, the Legislative Council becomes "a Committee of the whole Council" and goes through the bill clause by clause, making amendments where necessary. After the bill has passed through Committee with or without amendments, it proceeds to the third reading for passage by the Council.
In the United States House of Representatives, the Committee of the Whole is a device in which the House of Representatives is considered one large Congressional committee. The presiding officer is chosen by the Speaker of the House and is normally a member of the majority party who does not hold the chair of a standing committee.
The United States Senate used the Committee of the Whole as a parliamentary device for 197 years from the 1st Congress in 1789 and ceased using it in 1986 during the 99th Congress.
