I don't disagree with that. I don't know whether there's a mixup with what the committee was practising and the clerk has here, but there's a specific clause in here about a second round of five minutes.
What I'd be looking for, and maybe as some kind of amendment, is assurance that once every member has spoken, then I would get a second round of questioning. That would then provide at least some.... Everybody would get an opportunity to speak, and the parties have all gone through multiple speakers at that point. That's where I would look to have the second round of questioning assured.
I think that's a reasonable request. I'm not trying to get into a situation where we have a time problem and members don't get an opportunity to ask questions. I don't want that to be the case either. But if I had that assurance...because this was moved at some point in time—“and that thereafter five minutes be allocated to a second round for each party”—for a reason.
Once again, I don't object to every member getting a round, but I'd just look, before the chair uses the discretion.... The chair's discretion might be very good, but with this amendment I'd never have to worry about it, and the committee would never have to worry about it, if there's a substitute chair or something like that, or if things change. That assurance would be very important to me.