General Assembly may extend its session beyond ninety days, but
not exceeding an additional thirty days, by resolution concurred
in by a three-fifths vote of the membership in each House. When
the General Assembly is convened by Proclamation of the
Governor, the session shall not continue longer than thirty days,
but no additional compensation other than mileage and other
allowances provided by law shall be paid members of the General
Assembly for special session.

(2) Any compensation and allowances paid to members of the
General Assembly shall be as established by a commission known
as the General Assembly Compensation Commission. The Com-
mission shall consist of nine members, five of whom shall be
appointed by the Governor, two of whom shall be appointed by
the President of the Senate, and two of whom shall be appointed
by the Speaker of the House of Delegates. Members of the
General Assembly and officers and employees of the Government
of the State of Maryland or of any county, city, or other
governmental unit of the State shall not be eligible for appoint-
ment to the Commission. Members of the Commission shall be
appointed for terms of four years commencing on June 1 of each
gubernatorial election year. Members of the Commission are
eligible for re-appointment. Any member of the Commission may
be removed by the Governor prior to the expiration of his term
for official misconduct, incompetence, or neglect of duty. The
members shall serve without compensation but shall be reim-
bursed for expenses incurred in carrying out their responsibilities
under this section. Decisions of the Commission must be
concurred in by at least five members.

(3) Within 15 days after the beginning of the regular session of
the General Assembly in 1974 and within 15 days after the
beginning of the regular session in each fourth year thereafter, the
Commission by formal resolution shall submit its determinations
for compensation and allowances to the General Assembly. The
General Assembly may reduce or reject, but shall not increase
any item in the resolution. The resolution, with any reductions
that shall have been concurred in by joint resolution of the
General Assembly, shall take effect and have the force of law as
of the beginning of the term of office of the next General
Assembly, Rates of compensation and pensions shall be uniform
for all members of the General Assembly, except that the officers
of the Senate and the House of Delegates may receive higher
compensation as determined by the General Assembly Compen-
sation Commission. The provisions of the Compensation Com-
mission resolution shall continue in force until superseded by any
succeeding resolution.

(4) In no event shall the compensation and allowances be less
than they were prior to the establishment of the Compensation
Commission.

SEC. 16. No book, or other printed matter not appertaining to
the business of the session, shall be purchased, or subscribed for,
for the use of the members of the General Assembly, or be
distributed among them, at the public expense.

SEC. 17. No Senator or Delegate, after qualifying as such,
notwithstanding he may thereafter resign, shall during the whole
period of time, for which he was elected, be eligible to any office,
which shall have been created, or the salary, or profits of which
shall have been increased, during such term.

SEC. 18. No Senator or Delegate shall be liable in any civil
action, or criminal prosecution, whatever, for words spoken in
debate.

SEC. 19." Each House shall be judge of the qualifications and
elections of its members, as prescribed by the Constitution and
Laws of the State, and shall appoint its own officers, determine
the rules of its own proceedings, punish a member for disorderly
or disrespectful behaviour and with the consent of two-thirds of

"Amended by Chapter 681, Acts of 1977, ratified Nov. 7, 1978.

Constitution of Maryland'/685

its whole number of members elected, expel a member; but no
member shall be expelled a second time for the same offence.

SEC. 20. A majority of the whole number of members elected
to each House shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of
business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and
compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and
under such penalties, as each House may prescribe.

SEC. 21. The doors of each House, and of the Committee of the
Whole, shall be open, except when the business is such as ought to
be kept secret.

SEC. 22. Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings,
and cause the same to be published. The yeas and nays of
members on any question, shall at the call of any five of them in
the House of Delegates, or one in the Senate, be entered on the
Journal.

SEC. 23. Each House may punish by imprisonment, during the
session of the General Assembly, any person, not a member, for
disrespectful, or disorderly behavior in its presence, or for
obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its officers in the
execution of their duties; provided, such imprisonment shall not,
at any one time, exceed ten days,

SEC. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath of
witnesses, into all complaints, grievances and offences, as the
grand inquest of the State, and may commit any person, for any
crime, to the public jail, there to remain, until discharged by due
course of Law. They may examine and pass all accounts of the
State, relating either to the collection or expenditure of the
revenue, and appoint auditors to state and adjust the same. They
may call for all public, or official papers and records, and send for
persons, whom they may judge necessary in the course of their
inquiries, concerning affairs relating to the public interest, and
may direct all office bonds which shall be made payable to the
State, to be sued for any breach thereof; and with a view to the
more certain prevention, or correction of the abuses in the
expenditures of the money of the State, the General Assembly
shall create, at every session thereof, a Joint Standing Committee
of the Senate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to
send for persons, and examine them on oath, and call for Public,
or Official Papers and Records, and whose duty it shall be to
examine and report upon all contracts made for printing statio-
nery, and purchases for the Public offices, and the Library, and
al] expenditures therein, and upon all matters of alleged abuse in
expenditures, to which their attention may be called by Resolu-
tion of either House of the General Assembly.

SEC. 25. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other,
adjourn for more than three days, at any one time, nor adjourn to
any other place, than that in which the House shall be sitting,
without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the members
present.

SEC. 26. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power of
impeachment in all cases; but a majority of all the members
elected must concur in the impeachment. All impeachments shall
be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that purpose, the
Senators shall be on oath, or affirmation, to do justice according
to the law and evidence; but no person shall be convicted without
the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Senators elected.

SEC. 27.⁵⁴ Any bill may originate in either House of the
General Assembly and be altered, amended or rejected by the
other. No bill shall originate in either House during the last
thirty-five calendar days of a regular session, unless two-thirds of
the members elected thereto shall so determine by yeas and nays,

"Amended by Chapter 497, Acts of 1912, ratified Nov. 4, 1913;
Chapter 616, Acts of 1955, ratified Nov. 6, 1956; Chapter 161, Acts
of 1964, ratified Nov. 3. 1964; Chapter 576, Acts of 1970, ratified
Nov. 3, 1970; Chapter 369, Acts of 1972. ratified Nov. 7, 1972.