RECONSIDER
reconsider,vb. To discuss or take up (a matter) again <legislators voted to reconsider the bill>.
- Under parliamentary law, a motion to reconsider sets aside a certain vote already taken and
restores the motion on which the vote is being reconsidered to its status immediately before the
vote occurred. Making a motion to reconsider suspends a vote already taken until the assembly
decides whether to reconsider it. — reconsideration,n.
“The motion to reconsider is a distinctively American motion (it was first made the subject of
a rule in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1802).
“This motion was unknown to the early British Parliament. When Parliament (the British
Congress) passed an act, that act then stood as the judgment of the body until another law or
supplementary act was afterward passed explaining or amending the previous act — a
slow-moving and time-consuming process in the estimation of American
lawmakers.“Consequently, the American love for celerity invented the motion to reconsider, and
cleverly made it a mere procedural or restoratory motion. As a result, the motion to reconsider
now makes possible immediate reconsideration of a question, even on the same day.” George
Demeter, Demeter’s Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure 154 (1969).reconsider and enter
on the minutes.Parliamentary law. To make a motion to reconsider for the purpose of suspending a
vote already taken and bringing it back up at the next meeting. — Also termed reconsider and
enter; reconsider and have it entered on the minutes. [Blacks Law 8th]