A first reading is when a bill is introduced to a legislature. Typically, in the United States, the title of the bill is read and immediately assigned to a committee. The bill is then considered by committee between the first and second readings. In the United States Senate and most British-influenced legislatures, the committee consideration occurs between second and third readings.
In Ireland, the first reading is referred to as "First Stage" and is leave to introduced a bill into a House of the Oireachtas. It may be taken in either house, but it does not need to be taken in both.
In New Zealand, once a bill passes first reading it is normally referred to a Select Committee. However, a Government can have a bill skip the select committee stage by a simple majority vote in Parliament.
A bill can be defeated on first reading if no one else other than the member introducing the bill seconds it.
Read more about this topic: Reading (legislature)
Famous quotes containing the word reading:
“Human contacts have been so highly valued in the past only because reading was not a common accomplishment.... The world, you must remember, is only just becoming literate. As reading becomes more and more habitual and widespread, an ever-increasing number of people will discover that books will give them all the pleasures of social life and none of its intolerable tedium.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“A baby is a full time job for three adults. Nobody tells you that when you’re pregnant, or you’d probably jump off a bridge. Nobody tells you how all-consuming it is to be a mother—how reading goes out the window and thinking too.”
—Erica Jong (20th century)