How to delay a committee report

[Alex Meed]

At a meeting, at the appropriate time in the order of business, the chair calls for the report of the Select Committee on Widgets. The committee's chairman, however, is caught by surprise, and while the committee has adopted a report, the chairman will not be prepared to deliver it until later in the meeting. (Or, as an alternative situation, the committee will meet later during the assembly's meeting or during a recess, or perhaps is already meeting, and the chairman will only be able to deliver its report at that time.)

1. How should the chairman inform the meeting of this?
2. What action should the assembly take—e.g., laying the report on the table, or should it simply proceed as if the report was never called for? Or would a member be able to immediately move to discharge the committee or instruct it to report?
3. When the chairman is prepared to deliver the report, how should the chairman notify the assembly—perhaps through a motion to take the report from the table, or seeking recognition (and claiming preference in recognition?), or simply by passing a note to the secretary so that the presiding officer may call for the report?

[Josh Martin]

53 minutes ago, Alex M. said:

How should the chairman inform the meeting of this?

Just tell them, and perhaps apologize. There’s nothing formal about it.

53 minutes ago, Alex M. said:

What action should the assembly take—e.g., laying the report on the table, or should it simply proceed as if the report was never called for? Or would a member be able to immediately move to discharge the committee or instruct it to report?

If there currently is no report being given, I don’t think there is anything to lay on the table. The assembly could simply proceed.  If the assembly prefers, it could discharge the committee, or depending on the circumstances, might be able to instruct the committee to report.

You described two different situations. In the case where the chairman is simply unready to report at this time, the assembly could instruct the committee to report immediately. In the case where the report does not yet exist, instructing the committee to report (in and of itself) would not seem to accomplish much, although the motion could be reworded so as to instruct the committee to meet (if it is not already doing so) and to report by a specified time.

1 hour ago, Alex M. said:

When the chairman is prepared to deliver the report, how should the chairman notify the assembly—perhaps through a motion to take the report from the table, or seeking recognition (and claiming preference in recognition?), or simply by passing a note to the secretary so that the presiding officer may call for the report?

It seems to me that the committee chairman could seek recognition when no business is pending and seek permission to grant the report. I do not think he could claim preference in recognition for this purpose. Passing a note seems fine.

[Rob Elsman]

The chairman of the committee should make a main motion to postpone the presentation of the report to an appropriate hour. This motion requires a second, is debatable, is amendable, and requires a majority vote for adoption.

[Richard Brown]

11 hours ago, Rob Elsman said:

The chairman of the committee should make a main motion to postpone the presentation of the report to an appropriate hour. This motion requires a second, is debatable, is amendable, and requires a majority vote for adoption.

This is essentially what I would suggest. Rather than postponing to a definite time, the postponement could be until the occurrence of a certain event, such as immediately after the recess, After the guest speaker, immediately after all other reports, etc. The postponement could also be for a definite time or after a certain period of time, such as until 7:30 PM or “for 30 minutes”. 

Although the use of lay on the table for this purpose might not technically be appropriate, it seems to me it could nonetheless still be used If there is other pressing business to take up first.
 

[Dan Honemann]

I'm rather skeptical of the notion that Lay on the Table can be applied to anything other than a pending motion: and there is no such thing as an incidental main motion corresponding to Lay on the Table.