port or proposition containing several paragraphs[1] or sections, is as follows:
The whole paper should be read entirely through by the clerk; then the Chairman should read it, or have it read, by paragraphs,[2] pausing at the end of each, and asking, “Are there any amendments proposed to this paragraph?” If none are offered, he says, “No amendments being offered to this paragraph, the next will be read.” He then reads the next, and proceeds thus to the last paragraph, when he states that the whole report or all of the resolutions have been read and are open to amendment. He finally puts the question on agreeing to or adopting the whole paper as amended. If there is a preamble it should be
- ↑ By “paragraphs” is meant in this rule the separate divisions of the proposition, and they may be Articles, Sections or Paragraphs.
- ↑ No vote should be taken on the adoption of the several paragraphs,—one vote being taken finally on the adoption of the whole paper. By not adopting separately the different paragraphs, it is in order, after they have all been amended, to go back and amend any of them stilt further. In committee a similar paper would be treated the same way [see § 28]. In § 48 (b) an illustration is given of the practical application of this section.
If each paragraph or section is adopted separately, it is improper afterwards to vote on the adoption of the whole report, as this would be voting to adopt what has been already adopted in detail. So too it is out of order to go back and amend a paragraph that has been adopted, until after it has been reconsidered.
