As former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said “…and there are things we don’t know that we don’t know.” That statement applies perfectly to Gov. Paul LePage and his staff regarding whether the Legislature adjourned on June 30 — as in adjourning at the end of this year’s legislative session.

As a former member of the Maine House of Representatives, and one who taught legislative procedure, I understand that there is a distinction between “adjourning” a meeting of the Maine House or Senate at the end of a day and “adjourning until the call of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.” Apparently the governor and his staff don’t.

On June 30, both the Senate and House passed orders that said “when the House and Senate adjourn they do so until the call of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, respectively, when there is need to conduct business, or consider possible objections of the Governor.”

Motions like this are common near the end of a Legislative “year” because it makes no sense for the Legislature to meet every day (at significant cost) until a governor has used his 10 days, not counting Sundays, while determining what, if any, bills he will veto. This is one form of adjournment motion spelled out in Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure, which is used in virtually all state legislatures in the United States to provide a non-partisan guide for conducting the business of a legislative body.

Such motions have been used many times over the past several decades, and they have never meant that the Legislature has ended its session for the year.

Clearly, the governor and his staff have proved Rumsfeld correct.

Richard Davies

Hallowell