RDW2 Posted July 30, 2020 at 03:59 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 03:59 PM If someone is being questioned by the officers of a group and each officer is allocated a limited amount of time to ask questions, e.g 5 minutes, can an officer who has asked a question interrupt the person answering the question at any point my using the phrase "reclaiming my time"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:02 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:02 PM (edited) 16 minutes ago, RDW2 said: If someone is being questioned by the officers of a group and each officer is allocated a limited amount of time to ask questions, e.g 5 minutes, can an officer who has asked a question interrupt the person answering the question at any point my using the phrase "reclaiming my time"? I watched that hearing to. There isn't anything in RONR about this. Well, I missed the footnote Dr. Kapur put in his post. Edited July 30, 2020 at 04:17 PM by George Mervosh Added the last sentence in embarrassment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Geiger Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:09 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:09 PM I was under the impression that "reclaiming my time" is a peculiarity of the rules of the US House of Representatives, not something found in RONR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atul Kapur Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:14 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 04:14 PM The nearest that RONR gets to this situation is during debate, where it is specifically prohibited, "Unless the organization has a special rule on the subject, a member cannot yield any unexpired portion of his time to another member, or reserve any portion of his time for a later time—that is, if a member yields the floor before speaking his full ten minutes, he is presumed to have waived his right to the remaining time.*" 11th ed., p. 388, lines 12-18. The footnote says, in part, "This rule reflects the traditional parliamentary principles. The House of Representatives has a different rule which permits control of all time by a single member or the leaders of the opposing sides of the question." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted July 30, 2020 at 06:13 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 06:13 PM 1 hour ago, Benjamin Geiger said: I was under the impression that "reclaiming my time" is a peculiarity of the rules of the US House of Representatives, not something found in RONR. In RONR, it's generally not possible to yield your time to someone else to begin with, so the question of a member "reclaiming" time does not arise. A situation in which "someone is being questioned by the officers of a group and each officer is allocated a limited amount of time to ask questions, e.g 5 minutes," certainly does not match anything described in RONR, so it would seem to me that the answer to this question would depend on the rules of the organization. Additionally, if the guess of Mr. Mervosh and others is correct, the organization in question does not use RONR as its parliamentary authority and is not the sort of organization RONR is designed for, so what RONR says doesn't count for much anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted July 30, 2020 at 08:03 PM Report Share Posted July 30, 2020 at 08:03 PM (edited) It seems to me that if an organization is using RONR and a member who has the floor and is speaking in debate yields to another member for a question and the question turns out to be a very lengthy and rambling question, that the speaker can reclaim his time. Since the time for the question and and answer is coming out of the speaking member's time, he should be able to reclaim his time and resume speaking as he was before he was interrupted with the question. He has never actually yielded the floor, but has merely consented to use some of his allotted ten minutes of debate time for a question. I see nothing in RONR that prohibits him from reclaiming his time or which permits the member who interrupted with the question of filibustering the remainder of the speakers time to prevent him from making any more of his desired points in debate. Edited to add: This is perhaps the opposite of what happened during yesterday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, but the principle seems to be the same. The person who has the floor can reclaim his time if he has not actually yielded the floor. Edited July 30, 2020 at 08:05 PM by Richard Brown Addded last paragraph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mach37 Posted August 25, 2020 at 06:40 AM Report Share Posted August 25, 2020 at 06:40 AM In other words, "reclaiming my time" as used by House of Representatives members to interrupt the person they are questioning is completely "out of order." Or is that "Point of order"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atul Kapur Posted August 25, 2020 at 08:30 AM Report Share Posted August 25, 2020 at 08:30 AM It may well be completely in order according to the rules of the House of Representatives. But you're asking the question in an RONR forum, not a House of Representatives forum. And as was quoted above, RONR 11th ed., says "The House of Representatives has a different rule which permits control of all time by a single member or the leaders of the opposing sides of the question." (p. 388, fn) And the rules are probably different for committee hearings / questioning of witnesses, than they are in the main chamber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted August 25, 2020 at 02:04 PM Report Share Posted August 25, 2020 at 02:04 PM 7 hours ago, Guest mach37 said: In other words, "reclaiming my time" as used by House of Representatives members to interrupt the person they are questioning is completely "out of order." No, that's what what was said at all. The US House of Representatives does not use Robert's Rules of Order as its parliamentary authority. It actually uses Jefferson's Manual, as well as numerous pages of special rules of order. It may well be that the device of "reclaiming my time" is in order under the rules of the US House of Representatives. I don't know, and that question is beyond the scope of RONR and this forum. So if your question is concerning the procedure in the US House of Representatives, we can't help you. As I noted, "A situation in which "someone is being questioned by the officers of a group and each officer is allocated a limited amount of time to ask questions, e.g 5 minutes," certainly does not match anything described in RONR, so it would seem to me that the answer to this question would depend on the rules of the organization." So if your question is indeed involving a situation in which someone said "reclaiming my time" to "interrupt the person they are questioning" in an assembly using RONR, it would be helpful to have additional facts regarding how that situation arose in the first place. 7 hours ago, Guest mach37 said: Or is that "Point of order"? No, you used the right terminology. If a practice is not proper under the rules it is "out of order." A "Point of Order" is the motion which is used to bring the chair's attention to this fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted August 28, 2020 at 06:55 AM Report Share Posted August 28, 2020 at 06:55 AM On 7/30/2020 at 11:59 AM, RDW2 said: If someone is being questioned by the officers of a group and each officer is allocated a limited amount of time to ask questions, e.g 5 minutes, can an officer who has asked a question interrupt the person answering the question at any point my using the phrase "reclaiming my time"? Is the person being questioned a member of the assembly that is meeting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted August 28, 2020 at 11:38 AM Report Share Posted August 28, 2020 at 11:38 AM Is this some sort of disciplinary proceeding? Why is a member being “questioned by the officers”? am I missing something here or is this just a hypothetical discussion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted August 28, 2020 at 11:54 AM Report Share Posted August 28, 2020 at 11:54 AM 13 minutes ago, Richard Brown said: Is this some sort of disciplinary proceeding? Why is a member being “questioned by the officers”? am I missing something here or is this just a hypothetical discussion? I believe the OP was referring to the hearing in the Senate where they were grilling the Postmaster General and one of the Senators wouldn't let him finish an answer before "reclaiming her time." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted August 28, 2020 at 01:51 PM Report Share Posted August 28, 2020 at 01:51 PM (edited) 2 hours ago, Richard Brown said: Is this some sort of disciplinary proceeding? Why is a member being “questioned by the officers”? am I missing something here or is this just a hypothetical discussion? None of us know for certain what the OP or mach37 are referring to. Several posters speculated that the OP's post referred to a hearing held in a committee of the US House of Representatives, although this was never confirmed. 2 hours ago, Chris Harrison said: I believe the OP was referring to the hearing in the Senate where they were grilling the Postmaster General and one of the Senators wouldn't let him finish an answer before "reclaiming her time." It should be noted that the original post was made on July 30th, which I believe may predate the hearing you are referring to. It seems this may indeed be a common practice in committee hearings in both the US Senate and the US House. As has been noted previously, this may well be the correct practice under those organizations' rules, but that has nothing to do with RONR. Edited August 28, 2020 at 01:55 PM by Josh Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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