The North Carolina Senate will debate a
proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on Monday, a
fact leaders in the Senate attempted to hide.
According to its website, the Senate
Judiciary 1 committee will convene at 1:30PM on Monday to discuss a
bill titled Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits. House Bill 61 is a
proposal to limit the tenure of House and Senate leaders.
On Friday, however, WRAL
News reported that the bill titled Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits
is
the marriage measure.
As late as Saturday morning, the text
of H61 on the Senate's website still dealt with term limits.
According to the announcement, anyone
wishing to comment on the bill must sign up to do so between 1PM and
1:30PM in Legislative Office Building Room 643.
Jim Blaine, chief of staff for Senate
Leader Phil Berger, insisted leaders were not attempting to hide
anything.
When asked about the bill's title, he
answered: “Well, that's the name of the bill.”
“We are in no way, shape or form
trying to hide this. If we wanted to sneak this through, we'd put it
out Monday at noon. If you notice the members of the committee on
Friday, it's public domain.”