Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/175

 other miscellaneous expenses incurred by one house during a regular session can properly be paid by the State Auditor in the absence of some authorization by the other branch of the assembly, for identical language is employed with reference to the authority for such expenditures.

It is a safe assumption that legislative business has never been carried on in this manner, and it is doubtful if during the eight years that this legislation has been on the statute books there has been a single legal payment of expenses made under it—that is, legal according to the construction of the majority opinion. I am aware of nothing in our legislative history that furnishes a basis for such a conclusion as a practical construction of the legislation touching this subject-matter, and it certainly makes one house dependent upon the other to an extent heretofore uncontemplated. All the legislation clearly indicates that each house is to act independently in the performance of its legislative functions, but under the construction of the majority opinion in this case each can tie the hands of the other at will. The purse strings are admittedly in the hands of the Legislature, and both houses combined, through appropriation bills, may exercise a wholesome restraint upon the powers of each house to incur expenses. But where the appropriation is made and either house has proceeded in good faith, as must be assumed, to exercise the powers conferred upon it and has incurred expenses within the appropriation in so doing, in my opinion it is more consonant with the dignity of the state to meet its just obligations than to seek to justify a refusal by a restricted construction of legislative enactments never before given such an application.

In my opinion the compensation of the relators in the instant case should be paid as an item of expense “authorized by the Legislative Assembly” within § 42, C. L. 1913, for meeting which there is an existing appropriation. The case of the relators is even stronger than this. They are legislative employees. It must stand admitted, as previously pointed out, that one house does not need the assent of the other for the hiring of additional employees. This is according to the express language of the statute. Section 35, C. L. 1913. The only reason assigned by the majority for not directing payment to these employees is that they were assigned to duty with an investigating committee which functioned without the assent of the Senate. It is respectfully submitted that the relators do not lose the character of legislative employees by reason of being assigned to work with an investigating committee. Clearly the writ should issue.