Felt’s Parliamentary Procedure/Postpone to a Certain Time

by Orson B. Felt

Layout 2

POSTPONE TO A CERTAIN TIME.

102. If a question arises which the assembly prefers not to decide at once, or if the member desire further time for reflection or examination that they then possess, or if they desire to take up some other business, the question then under consideration may be postponed to a certain day or hour, but such postponement should not be to a day when the assembly will not be in session—because such motion would be equivalent to indefinite postponement, or to a time beyond the next succeeding session, because this would be equivalent to an attempt to prevent the next assembly from considering the question. It cannot be applied to a subsidiary or to any of the strictly parliamentary questions alone; if moved when any such question is pending it relates to the main question also.

103. A motion to postpone to a certain time may be amended by changing the time and is debatable as to the propriety of postponing the question, but such debate should be confined strictly to the motion and should not involve the merits of the question it is sought to postpone, since if the postponement be lost the question is still before the assembly for debate, or if carried the main question may be fully debated when again before the assembly. When two or more questions have been postponed to the same time they should be taken up in the order in which they were postponed, even though they are not taken up at the time apointed, but they cannot be taken up before the time appointed, except by a motion to take up out of order, requiring a two-thirds vote, or by a suspension of the rules (130) for that purpose, also requiring a two-thirds vote. When the time arrives for the question postponed to be taken up everything yields to it except privileged motions (80). When a question has been postponed to a certain day or hour it becomes on that day or hour one of the “orders of the day” (89).