Student Senate will not review the number of bills they estimated this semester.
Nic Rhodes, appropriations chairman, estimated in August that 23 bills would come to the Senate floor this semester.
The number was based on the 18 bills reviewed in Fall 2013.
“The amount of bills coming to us have declined dramatically,” said Terrence Craft, Student Senate president. “We just estimate it so high so that we have enough money.”
Eight bills were passed on the Senate floor at their last meeting on Nov. 11, including a bill for the Indian Student Association to host a Diwali Night for the campus community. SGA gave the organization $700 to provide authentic Indian food and other ways to experience Indian culture.
“We are just trying to help students and student organizations as much as possible,” said Beatrize Martinez, Student Government Association president. “If we don’t have any bills, then we can’t vote to pass them.”
Each senator must write at least two forms of legislation and submit them in to the appropriations committee to have the bill sent to the Senate floor.
All bills presented to Student Senate must be written in the proper format and submitted to the appropriations committee to be heard. The SGA vice president reserves the right to delay their legislation hearing by one week if it does not meet the required bill format.
The appropriations committee states their decision on whether the bill will pass or not during their designated report time at the beginning of each Student Senate meeting.
To pass a bill, there must be a majority of senators voting “yes” on the final by either roll call or text vote (when the senators text their votes to a phone number that is specified by the chair).
Bills are presented to Student Senate at 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday night in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
Leave a Reply