(a) There shall be a speaker of the house who shall take the chair at the hour fixed for the meeting of the house, and call the members to order, and shall perform the following duties:
(i) To announce the business before the house in the order in which it is to be taken up;
(ii) To receive and submit, in proper manner, all motions and propositions presented by the members, and to announce the result;
(iii) To receive messages and other communications from other branches of the government, and announce them to the house;
(iv) To authenticate by his signature, when necessary, all bills, orders and proceedings of the house;
(v) To name the members of all committees, unless otherwise directed by the house.
(b) He may call any member to the chair, but such substitution shall not extend beyond an adjournment.
(c) He shall have the regulation of such parts of the capitol and its passages, and any building in which the legislature meets while displaced from the capitol, as are or may be set apart for the use of the house or its officers.
(d) He shall refer all matters to be committed to the committee most appropriate to take charge of the same.
(e) He shall call a member to fill the chair whenever the house resolves itself into a committee of the whole.
(f) He shall preserve order and decorum, and may speak to points of order in preference to other members, rising from his seat for that purpose.
(g) When the house is in a committee of the whole, should there be any disorderly conduct in the lobby, or any part of the house, the speaker shall immediately resume the chair, and shall have the power to order the house cleared until order is restored.
(h) The house shall elect a speaker pro tem, who, in the absence of the speaker, shall exercise all the powers and authority of the speaker, and shall perform all his duties.
