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House judicial committee to consider circulated bills by referendum after failing to reach quorum
Summary
The House of Representatives' judicial committee convened June 20 but lacked a quorum. The president invoked committee rules to submit several circulated chamber and senate measures to members via referendum/signature collection; the session was recessed to reconvene tomorrow.
Unidentified Speaker, the president of the House of Representatives judicial committee, opened a public session on June 20, 2024, at about 3:11 p.m. to reconsider several chamber bills and one senate bill that had been circulated for members' review. He said the measures were being treated as read.
The committee did not have the required quorum. The president cited the chamber rules that permit the committee chair to submit matters to members by referendum when a quorum is not present: "la sección 12.16 del reglamento de la cámara de representantes" and noted that "la sección 12.21 ... establece que la decisión respecto a la votación final se tomará por una mayoría de los miembros en propiedad de la comisión." Christopher MalEspín, identified on the record as an advisor to the committee, confirmed the lack of quorum and said the measures would be considered tomorrow through the chamber's procedures to collect members' signatures: "Señor presidente no tenemos el quorum reglamentario por lo que procedemos a la regla ... así que vamos a proceder a que las medidas pues sean consideradas para mañana."
An unnamed staff speaker noted that texts of the chamber projects and the senate project had been circulated to committee members. The president stated there were no additional amendments and said, in Spanish, "así que damos por aprobado las medidas," indicating the committee treated the circulated measures as read. Given the absence of quorum, however, the committee agreed to use the referendum/signature-collection mechanism and recessed at about 3:14 p.m. to resume consideration the following day.
The measures referenced in the session were read in the record as (verbatim transcript spacing preserved): "la cámara número 10 26, 20 82, 16 22, 16 54 y 21 0 2" and the senate measure "1 1 9 9"; the transcript spacing makes exact bill-number normalization unclear. The committee did not take in-person roll-call votes; instead, it directed staff to pursue the referendum process so members may register their final votes by signature.
Next steps: committee staff will use chamber resources to collect members' signatures for the referendum; the session is scheduled to reconvene tomorrow to complete formal consideration once the referendum results are gathered.
