Germaneness Class

GERMANENESS AND EXISTING LAW

Principles:
1. In general, an amendment must be germane to the pending bill, not to the underlying law to be changed. The determination of whether a bill which amends existing law opens the entire law to amendment follows the principles that a general proposition can be amended by specific propositions (or subsets) of the same class.
2. Where a bill amends existing law in one narrow particular, an amendment proposing to modify the existing law in other particulars will be ruled out of order as not germane.
3. To a bill amending existing law in several particulars, but relating to a single subject, an amendment proposing to modify the law but not related to the same single subject is not germane.
4. A bill amending several sections of an existing law may be sufficiently broad to permit amendments which are germane to other sections of that law not included in the bill.
5. A bill may so extensively amend an existing law as to open the entire law to amendment, even to repeal the existing law.
6. The bill amending the law must so vitally affect the whole law as to bring the entire act under consideration.
7. Where a bill repeals a provision of law, an amendment modifying (but not repealing) that provision may be germane; but the modification must relate to the provision of law being repealed.
Examples:

To an amendment in the nature of a substitute comprehensively amending several sections of the Clean Air Act with respect to the impact of the shortage of energy resources upon standards imposed under that Act, an amendment to another section of that Act suspending for a temporary period the authority of the Administrator of the EPA to control automobile emissions was held to be germane.

To a bill amending several sections of the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities Act to extend the authorization for appropriations and redefine certain powers of the foundation, an amendment proposing to further amend the Act to establish an office of Poet Laureate of the United States was ruled out of order as not germane.