After three hours of debate on a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state, Maryland House of Delegates Chairman Del. Joseph Vallario today sent the Civil Marriage Protection Act back to the House’s Judiciary Committee.
The move came during the final reading of the bill. Delegates were expected to vote on the measure today. Supporters were sure of getting only 69 ot 70 of the 71 votes the bill needed to pass in the House. It has already passed in the Senate, and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has said he will sign it into law if it reaches his desk.
Immediately after the bill was sent back to committee, the LGBT rights organization Equality Maryland sent out a press release containing statements attributed to “the staff and board of Equality Maryland; Morgan Meneses-Sheets, executive director, and Charles Butler, board president,” saying that while they are disappointed the House did not pass the measure today, “we are confident we will win in the future.
“With so much at stake today for thousands of Maryland families, we are thankful that our legislative allies have taken such care with this vote. It is best to delay this historic vote until we are absolutely sure we have the votes to win. We look forward to working strategically with our amazing allies in the legislature, and our supporters across the state, to continue to build support for, and win, marriage equality in the Free State,” the Equality Maryland statement said.
I have seen no explanation yet of what happens now with the bill.
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When a legislative body sends a bill back to committee, they effectively kill it. It *is* possible for a bill to return from committee for a formal legislative vote, but that is the exception, not the rule. What goes back to committee dies in committee, generally speaking. (It’s a scapegoat technique–when a bill goes back to committee, it can effectively be killed without the legislators being put on the spot by having to vote against it, at the potential risk to their political careers). Hopefully there is a strong lobbyist in place who has the ability to get the bill back out of committee and reintroduced into both houses for a vote. While it is true that the Senate passed this bill, unless the House ratifies it within a specific period of time, which varies from state to state, but is usually limited to the current legislative session, the Senate’s passage is rendered null and void. Essentially the sponsors of this bill will likely have to start over.