Reconsider

Purpose: to bring back for review
Can Interrupt the Speaker: No
Requires Second: Yes
Debatable: Yes
Amendable: Yes
Required Vote: 2/3

Summary:

Description:

It is in order at any time, even when another member

has the floor, or while the assembly is voting on the motion to Adjourn,

during the day* [In Congress any one can move a reconsideration,

excepting where the vote is taken by yeas and nays [§ 38], when the rule

above applies. The motion can be made on the same or succeeding day.]

on which a motion has been acted upon, to move to "Reconsider the vote"

and have such motion "entered on the record," but it cannot be

considered while another question is before the assembly. It must be

made, excepting when the vote is by ballot, by a member who voted with

the prevailing side; for instance, in case a motion fails to pass for

lack of a two-thirds vote, a reconsideration must be moved by one who

voted against the motion.

A motion to reconsider the vote on a Subsidiary [§ 7] motion takes

precedence of the main question. It yields to Privileged [§ 9] questions (except for the Orders of the Day), and Incidental [§ 8]

questions.

This motion can be applied* [It is not the practice to reconsider an

affirmative vote on the motion to lie on the table, as the same result

can be more easily reached by the motion to take from the table. For a

similar reason, an affirmative vote on the motion to take from the table

cannot be reconsidered.] to every question, except to Adjourn and to

Suspend the Rules. It is debatable or not, just as the question to be

reconsidered is debatable or undebatable [§ 35]; when debatable, it

opens up for discussion the entire subject to be reconsidered, and can

have the Previous question [§ 20] applied to it without affecting any

thing but the motion to reconsider. It can be laid on the table [§ 19],

and in such cases the last motion cannot be reconsidered; it is quite

common and allowable to combine these two motions (though they must be

voted on separately); in this case, the reconsideration like any other

question, can be taken from the table, but possesses no privilege.** [In

Congress this is a common method used by the friends of a measure to

prevent its reconsideration.] The motion to reconsider being laid on the

table does not carry with it the pending measure. If an amendment to a

motion has been either adopted or rejected, and then a vote taken on the

motion as amended, it is not in order to reconsider the vote on the

amendment until after the vote on the original motion has been reconsidered. If

anything which the assembly cannot reverse, has been done as the result

a vote, then that vote cannot be reconsidered.

The Effect of making this motion is to suspend all action that the

original motion would have required until the reconsideration is acted

upon; but if it is not called up, its effect terminates with the session

[§ 42], provided,* [In Congress the effect always terminates with the

session, and it cannot be called up by any one but the mover, until the

expiration of the time during which it is in order to move a

reconsideration.] that in an assembly having regular meetings as often

as monthly, if no adjourned meeting upon another day is held of the one

at which the reconsideration was moved, its effect shall not terminate

till the close of the next succeeding session. [See note at end of this

section.] While this motion is so highly privileged as far as relates to

having it entered on the minutes, yet the reconsideration of another

question cannot be made to interfere with the discussion of a question

before the assembly, but as soon as that subject is disposed of, the

reconsideration, if called up, takes precedence of every thing except

the motions to adjourn, and to fix the time to which to adjourn. As

long as its effect lasts (as shown above), any one can call up the

motion to reconsider and have it acted upon--excepting that when its

effect extends beyond the meeting at which the motion was made, no one

but the mover can call it up at that meeting. But the reconsideration

of an Incidental [§ 8] or Subsidiary [§ 7] motion shall be immediately acted upon, as otherwise it would prevent

action on the main question.

The Effect of the adoption of this motion is to place before the

assembly the original question in the exact position it occupied before

it was voted upon; consequently no one can debate the question

reconsidered who had previously exhausted his right of debate [§ 34] on

that question; his only resource is to discuss the question while the

motion to reconsider is before the assembly.

When a vote taken under the operation of the previous question [§ 20] is

reconsidered, the question is then divested of the previous question,

and is open to debate and amendment, provided the previous question had

been exhausted [see latter part of § 20] by votes taken on all the

questions covered by it, before the motion to reconsider was made.

A reconsideration requires only a majority vote, regardless of the vote

necessary to adopt the motion reconsidered. [For reconsidering in

committee see § 28].

Note On Reconsider.--In the English Parliament a vote once taken

cannot be reconsidered, but in our Congress it is allowed to move a

reconsideration of the vote on the same or succeeding day, and after the

close of the last day for making the motion, any one can call up the

motion to reconsider, so that this motion cannot delay action more than

two days, and the effect of the motion, if not acted upon, terminates with the session. There

seems to be no reason or good precedent for permitting merely two

persons, by moving a reconsideration, to suspend for any length of time

all action under resolutions adopted by the assembly, and yet where the

delay is very short the advantages of reconsideration overbalance the

evils.

Where a permanent society has meetings weekly or monthly, and usually

only a small proportion of the society is present, it seems best to

allow a reconsideration to hold over to another meeting, so that the

society may have notice of what action is about to be taken. To prevent

the motion being used to defeat a measure that cannot be deferred till

the next regular meeting, it is provided that in case the society

adjourn, to meet the next day for instance, then the reconsideration

will not hold over beyond that session; this allows sufficient delay to

notify the society, while, if the question is one requiring immediate

action, the delay cannot extend beyond the day to which they adjourn.

Where the meetings are only quarterly or annual, the society should be

properly represented at each meeting, and their best interests are

subserved by following the practice of Congress, and letting the effect

of the reconsideration terminate with the session.

Reconsider

Summary:

Description:

Motions in increasing order of precedence:

Motions without order of precedence: