A fuss over bill titles is festering in the House.

In recent weeks House Democrats have changed the title of three high-profile bills to long, precise descriptions of what the bills would do.

The title change made it nearly impossible for House Republicans to make any substantive changes to the budget or to a bill outlawing school bullying. A proposal to change the state's annexation laws now also features a lengthy title.

The title matters because House rules say amendments from the floor must be "germane." The more detail included in the title, the less a House member can do with an amendment.

House Republicans say the practice violates the spirit of openness promised by House Speaker Joe Hackney. 

"The Speaker has done a good job being fair, but recently the process has become heavy handed," said Rep. Johnathan Rhyne, a Lincolnton Republican. 

The place to change the substance of a bill is in committee, said Rep. Bill Owens, an Elizabeth City Democrat and the House rules chairman. Any bill can be sent back to committee with a simple majority vote.  

"Time for debate on the floor needs to be the principle reason for the bill, not amending the titles to put in things that there's not majority support for," Owens said. 

More after the jump.

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The House voted in favor of a bill that tweaks the state's laws that allow lawsuits over adultery.

In North Carolina, a man or woman can sue his or her spouse's lover for "alienation of affection." The jilted person can sue his or her spouse for "criminal conversation."

The bill states that the ability to sue doesn't apply if a couple has separated but not yet divorced. The bill sets a three years limit, beginning at the last act, for filing such lawsuits and it prohibits suits filed against businesses.

Rep. Johnathan Rhyne, Jr., a Lincolnton Republican, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that the law applied until a couple had obtained a legal separation agreement. Without the amendment, couples would have no incentive to try to save their marriages, he said.

"In North Carolina we have a one-year period of separation before you can get a divorce," Rhyne said. "Marriages are considered precious things and we've given a cooling off period."

Rep. Melanie Wade Goodwin, the bill's sponsor and a Hamlet Democrat, said the amendment ignores the reality, that many people don't get separation agreements until their lawyers have investigated the spouse's finances.

Rep. Mark Hilton, a Conover Republican, said the bill weakened marriage.

"What we're going to be doing if this bill passes is saying it's open season," Hilton said.

State Rep. Joe Kiser, a Lincoln County Republican and former sheriff, said today he will not run for re-election to the legislature.

"This is a very difficult decision for me to leave the many friends I have made in both parties in the North Carolina House and North Carolina Senate," Kiser said in a statement, David Ingram reports.

He previously served as Lincoln County sheriff. The experience made him an influential voice on criminal justice issues in Raleigh, where he is known for advocating longer prison sentences.

Former House member Johnathan Rhyne Jr., a Republican and a lawyer and businessman in Lincolnton, has said he plans to run for Kiser's seat, which encompasses all of Lincoln County.