THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996                  TAG: 9603080617
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

IN STOPPING BILL, MOSS SAYS, HE DEFENDED SYSTEM

After the chamber had cleared, House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. relaxed at his podium and treated himself to a Styrofoam cup filled with raw oysters.

Between bivalves, Moss defended his controversial ruling that led to the demise of parental notification legislation and left abortion foes calling him every name short of ``capricious tyrant.''

``What I did,'' Moss declared, ``was uphold the integrity of the system.''

The Norfolk Democrat said that while he supports parental notification, he had a higher duty to defend the House of Delegates' time-honored rules.

The Senate had tacked the notification proposal onto a bill dealing with the commitment of juveniles to mental hospitals. Moss said the bill violated a constitutional requirement that each piece of legislation should have a single purpose.

``This is the most blatant disregard of the rule since I've been in the General Assembly,'' he said.

Republican lawmakers, however, grumbled that the speaker's ruling fits a pattern of inconsistent decisions that threatens the rules that Moss holds in such high esteem.

Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Manassas, said he set a trap for Moss last year by raising the identical question at issue in Tuesday's debate: Can the speaker rule that amendments approved by the Senate are not germane to the original bill?

Marshall handed out excerpts of the 1995 House Journal in which Moss twice said he had no choice but to bow to the Senate.

``Those are his words, not mine,'' Marshall said.

Salem Del. H. Morgan Griffith recalled that Moss ruled one way on an unrelated procedural question last year - and then contradicted himself a few days later.

``It was like it depended on how he felt that day,'' Griffith recalled. ``I think he was trying to be very sincere here today, but there has to be some consistency in the chair's rulings.''

Moss dismissed those criticisms with the wave of a plastic fork.

``Every issue, every situation, is different,'' he said.

KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY ABORTION PARENTAL NOTICE by CNB