Amendments must be ______ to the motion; a secondary amendment must be ______ to the primary amendment.

Amendments must be ______ to the motion; a secondary amendment must be ______ to the primary amendment.

• A. Irrelevant
• B. Out of order
• C. Germane
• D. Timely

Answer: (C)

The key idea is that amendments must be germane to the motion, keeping the discussion focused on the topic at hand. In parliamentary procedure, an amendment should relate to what is being debated; if it veers off into a different subject, it’s not in order because it would distract from the main question. That same standard applies to a secondary amendment, which is an amendment to the amendment. It must also be germane, but to the amendment it’s addressing—meaning it should relate to the content of that amendment, not introduce an unrelated issue. For example, if the main motion is to fund Project X, an amendment to increase the funding could be made, and a supplementary amendment could adjust the amount further. But proposing a completely new project in that secondary amendment would be outside the scope of the amendment and not germane. Because germane is the requirement for both levels, it best fits the statement. The other terms would either describe the effect of a non-germane amendment (out of order) or describe something irrelevant to the rules about amendments (irrelevant or timely).

The key idea is that amendments must be germane to the motion, keeping the discussion focused on the topic at hand. In parliamentary procedure, an amendment should relate to what is being debated; if it veers off into a different subject, it’s not in order because it would distract from the main question.

That same standard applies to a secondary amendment, which is an amendment to the amendment. It must also be germane, but to the amendment it’s addressing—meaning it should relate to the content of that amendment, not introduce an unrelated issue. For example, if the main motion is to fund Project X, an amendment to increase the funding could be made, and a supplementary amendment could adjust the amount further. But proposing a completely new project in that secondary amendment would be outside the scope of the amendment and not germane.

Because germane is the requirement for both levels, it best fits the statement. The other terms would either describe the effect of a non-germane amendment (out of order) or describe something irrelevant to the rules about amendments (irrelevant or timely).