Passed Motion to Amend the Constitution to Replace the Senate

The Speaker or Chairperson may assign this to a thread that has passed their respective house's legislative process.
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JaxsonWinter

JaxsonWinter

The Greater Empire of Astrodom
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Oct 3, 2022
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A MOTION

To Amend the Constitution to Remove and Replace the Senate of the UDS with a More Efficient System
Introduced into the senate of the Union of Democratic States on the 27th of March, 2023, by @Kanglia
As follows:
​

BELIEVING that the current legislative format is restrictive
ACKNOKWLEDGING the limited number of citizens who run and vote in Senate elections.
COGNIZANT of the higher level of activity than voter turnouts.
FULLY CONFIDENT that changing our legislative balance will create a more active and robust system.
BE IT ENACTED by the Senate

Section 1: Edit to Article
Article II: The Council of State.
  1. The Council of State (or Council/CoS) shall be composed of all citizens who hold the title of Councillor.
    1. A: All citizens are able to become Councillor by submitting an application to the Speaker of the Council.
  2. In order to maintain Councillor status, it is required that the citizen must vote at least once in every four votes. A written abstention counts as a vote to maintain the role of Councillor.
    1. The Speaker will be tasked with keeping track of each Councillor's status, and if they so choose, to notify Councilors of any impending loss of Councillor status.
    2. Any Citizen who loses Councillor status should be able to regain status provided they remain in good standing. A Councillor may have their Legislator status revoked if they are convicted of a crime.
  3. Any proposed bills will be presented to the Speaker of the Council, who shall be elected by the Councillors following the same timeline as the President.
  4. The Speaker of the Assembly will be tasked with opening the debate and voting periods.
  5. Bills will be opened for debate by the Speaker of the Council, at which point all Councillorsmay engage in debate and propose amendments.
    1. Any Councillor may motion to close debate at any time.
      1. This motion must be seconded to come into effect.
    2. The Speaker of the Council will then move the bill into its appropriate voting stage.
      1. The two stages will be Amendment voting, which will only be in effect if there are proposed amendments, and Full voting, which will determine the result of the bill.
      2. Amendment voting will last for a period of 72 hours.
  6. Votes of the Council shall only be considered binding if three or more Councilors vote.
  7. The Council may pass motions. These do not require Presidential promulgation, and may not be vetoed, these do not hold the same legal power as laws, but some may be deemed as legally enforceable. Examples of motions the Assembly may pass include:
    1. Vote Directives for the General Assembly of the World Assembly. When a proposal reaches a vote in the General Assembly, the Council shall reach a position if the World Assembly Delegate should vote for, against, or abstain from the measure.
    2. Standing Orders, in which internal rules and procedures are established.
    3. Committee Establishments and Dissolutions, in which a formal body consisting of Councillor and appointed citizens is created or dissolved.
    4. A Summon, in which the summoned individual shall answer questions before the Council.
    5. This list is non-exhaustive and may be expanded upon via law or motions.
  8. The Council may overturn vetoes from the President with a three-quarters supermajority.
  9. The Council shall hold confirmation votes on the World Assembly Delegate, Justices, and unelected Vice Presidents. Confirmation votes shall fail if they do not reach the required amount of votes. Failed confirmation votes result in the relevant official being removed or not appointed to office.
  10. The Council may remove from office the Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, Justices, the World Assembly Delegate, the Speaker, the Chief Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner by a successful motion to that effect due to
    1. Over 10 days of inactivity.
    2. Criminal conviction.
    3. Other reasons established by law.
  11. The Council may remove Cabinet Ministers from office by a successful motion to that effect. Citizens removed as Cabinet Ministers may not serve as Minister for the rest of the term.
  12. The Council holds the power to veto Executive Orders via a majority; similar powers shall exist in regards to any form of delegated or secondary legislation.


Section II: Additional Provisions.
  1. The word Senate shall be replaced by Council in all mentions of the Constitution
  2. All Citizens will be granted the status of Councilor upon passage of this Amendment, in order to provide a smooth transition.
 
Yeah so I'll keep this very brief. I think that the Senate, while it has done an admirable job, has not shown a lot of efficiency over the last three terms and I think a large cause of that is the fact that its very limited scope and stature. I think that by removing the concept of fully elected legislatures, we can create a more active legislature by default. With this conceptualized Council of State, we can create a sector of RP based laws along with our ever present ideas of legalism, integrating our two communities into one big one.
 
Due to no discussion in the past 48 Hours, I close debate
 
We shall now move onto Voting
Since no Edits or Amendments were Risen we shall move onto Voting on the Acutal Motion
 
All in Favor of the Motion may say Aye
All Opposed may say No
 
All Senators have Voted
On Votes Relating to the Motion to Amend the Constitution

The Ayes to the Right: 4
The Noes to the Left: 0
I think the Ayes have it, the Ayes have it! The bill is passed
 
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