Hearing: Standing Rules of the Federation Council

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Vedek Tabor
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Hearing: Standing Rules of the Federation Council

Post by Vedek Tabor »

Councilors, I hereby bring up the following bill for a hearing before the Federation Judiciary Council. No less than 72 hours for debate and consideration of amendments.

Vedek TABOR of Bajor for himself presents:

A RESOLUTION to create Standing Rules for the Federation Council

WHEREAS, a series of Standing Rules have been proposed to be adopted by the Council and affixed in the schedule hereto:

Now therefore, be it RESOLVED, that this Council creates the Standing Rules affixed in the schedule hereto for this and all subsequent Councils which shall come into effect immediately after its passage by this Parliament and that the Chair shall be empowered to enforce these Standing Rules:

SCHEDULE:

Standing Rules of the Federation Council

I. The Council and its Members

1. The Council shall consist of such members as shall be validly elected or appointed by Federation Members pursuant to the Federation Charter and who have taken the Oath of Office; their membership shall continue until dissolution, death, resignation or ineligibility;

2. All members of The Council shall have the right to speak in debates, cast their vote on questions posed to The Council, submit legislation to The Council, and all other rights of the Office delegated to it in the Federation Charter;

3. The Council shall meet at the Palais de la Concorde unless otherwise ordered by the Chair, due to extraordinary circumstances.

II. The Chair

1. The President of the United Federation of Planets shall be the Presiding Officer. They shall be charged with the implementation of these Rules of Order, the administration of discipline, and the smooth conduct of the business of The Council;

2. The Chair shall be impartial with their rulings, but need not resign their party affiliation upon assumption of the office. The President may not vote in proceedings and shall not participate in debate while Presiding over The Council.

3. In the absence of the President of the United Federation of Planets, the President Pro Tempore of the Federation Council shall preside.

3. The President Pro Tempore shall be elected upon the death, resignation or disability of the sitting President. In order to be elected President Pro Tempore, an individual must obtain at least a plurality of votes. In the event of a tie, a further election occurs with all candidates who received the highest number of votes and all other candidates shall be dropped off the ballot.

4. The President Pro Tempore may be removed by a motion of no confidence supported by a majority of The Council;

5. If the President and President Pro Tempore are absent from a session, The Council will elect a Speaker who shall preside over The Council.

6. In the event that the office of President Pro Tempore shall fall vacant during a Council session, a new election for the office of Chair shall be held presided by the Speaker or a member of the Council designated by the Speaker.

III. Political Parties; Government and Opposition

1. The members of The Council may organize in groups referred to as Political Parties; unless otherwise noted it shall be assumed that the members elected as candidates for a particular party organisation shall together constitute a new Political Party;

2. The Political Parties shall regulate their own membership giving notice to the Chair of mutations therein;

3. The Political Parties shall regulate their own procedures where no rules are prescribed by these Rules of Order for their conduct;

4. Each Political Party will be represented by a Leader selected from amongst its members, or a designate announced in advance to the Chair by these individuals in procedural matters and debates on matters of general policy.

5. The Majority shall be represented by the Majority Leader;

6. The parties supporting and giving rise to the Majority shall be referred to as the "majority parties"; they shall be represented jointly by the Majority Leader;

7. The largest Political party that is not a majority party shall be referred to as the Official Minority; its leader shall be the Minority Leader.

IV. Submission and Consideration of Legislation

1. Legislation may be introduced by any member in the form prescribed by the law; they shall be placed in the The Council Hopper to await debate;

2. The President of the Federation Council shall assign bills in the hopper to an appropriate sub-council for its consideration within 1 week of the bill being posted in the hopper.

3. Each week, up to three legislative items may be brought forward at the request of the Majority Leader or their designee, one item may be brought forward at the request of the Minority Leader, with up to one additional legislative being allotted to a Private Member’s bill (or other legislative item) that has been endorsed by at least 35% of the Members of The Council to be placed by the floor as determined by the Chair;

4. After a bill has been placed before the Council floor by a member, the Chair shall allow the proposer or their designee address The Council on the merits of the bill. The Chair shall provide 48 hours for the proposer or their designee to make this initial address. Once this address has been made or 48 hours have passed without such an address, the bill shall proceed to general debate.

5. Once the bill has been opened to general debate, it is in order for members to speak on the bill and to offer amendments.

6. No less than one week shall be allotted to general debate on a bill presented to The Council under the standard procedures.

8. No less than 72 hours shall be allotted to debate on amendments of any kind to a bill or resolution that was presented before The Council, as well as debates on motions that come before The Council.

9. Debate must be germane to the matter pending before The Council. When The Council is debating an amendment, all debate must be focused on the amendment. Any speeches not conforming to these guidelines will not be deemed “substantive” for the purpose of calculating time.

10. After the minimum time for debate on a measure has passed, the Chair will allow debate to continue until at least 24 hours has passed since the last substantive speech has been made on the pending matter.

10A: The Chair may, at their discretion, extend debate past the 24 hour period during certain special situations such as holiday weekends, periods where several members are on vacation, technical issues, etc.

11. After the conclusion of debate, the bill, amendment, or other legislative item proceeds to a vote.

V: Amendments

1. Amendments to legislation shall be in order from any member of The Council when a bill has reached the general debate stage.

2. Any amendments that are introduced to a bill must be germane to the topic of the bill. The Chair shall determine whether or not a proposed amendment is germane if challenged by a Point of Order.

3. Second Degree Amendments are in order when an amendment has been offered for the purposes of amending a proposed amendment. When offered, the Second Degree amendment takes precedence for consideration, followed by the original amendment. Second Degree amendments must be germane to the legislation.

4. Amendments to second degree amendments shall not be in order.

5. Any member may offer an amendment of a clerical nature to correct spelling, grammar, or formatting. Such an amendment does not require a vote and is automatically adopted so long as it does not make any substantive changes to the bill. A member may challenge whether or not an amendment is clerical in nature by making a point of order that an amendment is not clerical in nature. If the Chair rules that an amendment is not clerical in nature, it shall follow the normal amendment process.

6. The author of a piece of legislation may, at their discretion, accept an amendment as “friendly”. If accepted as friendly, the amendment shall be automatically incorporated into the bill draft without any intervening debate or vote on the amendment.

VI. Voting Procedures

1. Whenever a vote comes before the The Council, the Chair shall put the question to the members, and ask for all members to cast their votes on the particular question.

2. Members may vote “AYE”, “YES”, “NO”, “NAY”, “PRESENT”, or “ABSTAIN”. Votes that do not subscribe to this format will be disregarded by the Chair.

3. Members may change their vote at any time prior to the conclusion of the vote.

4. The Chair will allot 1 week for any vote on final passage, and 72 hours for all other votes. The Chair may extend the time at their discretion up to 48 hours in the event a vote falls on a holiday, when many members are absent, when there are technical difficulties, or other special circumstances.

4A. In the event that members of all parties have voted in a division, the Chair may, at their discretion, end the division early.

5. At the conclusion of the vote, the Chair will tally the votes cast and announce the full result to the Council.

6. In order to pass, a question generally requires a simple majority vote in favor of the question, unless another threshold is established by law or the Standing Orders. In the event of a tie, the question fails.

7. For unanimous consent requests, the Chair should inquire of The Council “Is there any objection to the Member’s request?” The Chair will then give members 48 hours to voice any objections. If there are no objections voiced in 48 hours, the unanimous consent request is agreed to. If one or more members object, the request is denied.

8. Legislative items that are not bills (ie, Resolutions, Motions, etc.) immediately come into force once adopted by The Council and require no Presidential action.

9. Once passed, any bills are presented to the President for their signature or veto. If the President vetoes the bill, the sponsor of the bill may request that the bill be reconsidered for a Veto Override vote on the next docket. Any veto override attempts do not count against the maximum number of docketed bills.

VII: Motions

1. The Chair shall entertain the following motions made by a member of The Council, in order of precedence:

2. Point of Order: A member may make a point of order if they believe that a standing order has been violated by a member of The Council. A Point of Order is not debatable, but a member may briefly state what rule(s) they believe have been violated and ask for a ruling from the Chair.

2A: The Chair must then rule whether or not the point of order is well taken (agreed) or not well taken. If a point of order is well taken, then the Chair must take the appropriate action to bring The Council back in order.

2B: The Chair’s ruling on a point of order may be appealed to the Parliamentarian whose ruling on the matter is final.

3. Parliamentary Inquiry: A member may make a Parliamentary Inquiry to ask the Chair for advice or clarification on a matter related to the rules of The Council.

4. Table: A motion to table may be offered on a bill, amendment, resolution, or any motion of lower precedence to indefinitely postpone its consideration before The Council if passed by a majority vote.

5. Suspend the Rules: A motion to suspend the rules may be offered to suspend the Standing Orders and proceed with a specified action. This motion requires a 2/3rds majority to pass.

6. Take from the table: A motion to take from the table is in order for any bill, amendment, resolution, or motion that was previously tabled by a vote of The Council. It requires a majority vote to pass.

7. Reconsider: A motion to reconsider in order for a bill, amendment, resolution, or motion that was previously rejected by a vote of The Council. A motion to reconsider is only in order if made by a member who voted against the item previously, and only if that item was considered during the current session of The Council. A motion to reconsider may only be made once on a particular item during a session of The Council.

8. Adjourn: The Council may vote to adjourn for a period not to exceed two (OOC) weeks. When moved, the mover must specify how long the adjournment is to last. The motion is debatable and follows the same debate and voting rules as any other motion. While adjourned, The Council is not in session and no legislation, bills, motions, or speeches may be considered unless an order to recall The Council from adjournment is made by the President or President Pro Tempore for some urgent reason, after consultation with party leaders.

9. Ordering the Previous Question: The Motion Ordering the Previous Question may be used to end debate, but only after at least 72 hours have passed for debates. If the motion is adopted by a majority of The Council, all further debate and consideration concludes and the pending item is placed to an immediate vote without delay. This mechanism is in place to prevent filibustering.

10. Unanimous Consent to Pass a Bill/Resolution/Motion outside of a Docket: Once per docket period, the leader of a political party may move to pass a bill, resolution, or motion by unanimous consent, even if it is not on the docket for that week. Once the request is recognized by the Chair, 24 hours will be allotted for any objection. If any deputy objects, the bill is not passed by consent and must go through the normal docket process in order to be considered again.

VIII: Sub-Councils

1. The number and designation of sub-councils shall be set by the President and ratified by the Council. Appointments to sub-councils shall be made by the President of the Federation and ratified by the Council.

2. Legislative Procedures shall follow the rules of order for the Federation Council, except where outlined differently in this section.

3. The President of the Federation shall be the ordinary Presiding Officer of all sub-council proceedings. In the absence of the President of the Federation, a Chair shall be appointed by the President to preside over proceedings. The President of the Federation may not vote but may participate in all other aspects of the sub-council process.

4. Each week, the sub-council may consider up to 3 items of legislation. It shall be in order for any member of the sub-council to debate the merits of the legislation and propose amendments to the legislation within the sub-council.

5. Any member of the sub-council may call witnesses to testify on behalf of the sub-council about a pending item under consideration of the sub-council.

6. After all time for consideration of a legislative item has concluded, the sub-council shall vote on recommending that the Council consider the item. If a majority of the sub-council vote to support the consideration of the item, the legislative item shall be able to be considered by the full Council through the ordinary legislative process. In the event a majority shall not agree, the bill is considered defeated for that legislative session.

7. The Council may, at their discretion, suspend or modify the operation of sub-councils as they see fit whenever activity levels may warrant changes to sub-council operations.

8. The President of the Federation or Chair of a Sub-Council may, at their discretion, call a hearing to address a specific topic of import to the Sub-Council. In such a hearing, any member of the committee may call witnesses, subpoena relevant documents with the consent of the Chair, and question any witnesses and give any public statement. No less than 1 week will be designated for any hearing, and the end point of a hearing shall be determined by the Chair of the Sub-Council or upon a motion adopted by the majority of the sub-council.

IX: Discipline

1. All members of The Council enjoy privilege from any sort of criminal or civil action as a result of any speech they give on the floor of The Council, but are still subject to discipline from The Council itself.

2. The Chair shall have primary responsibility in maintaining order in the Chamber, and has the power to warn, reprimand, and suspend members.

3. A member may be suspended from The Council for no more than 48 hours by the Chair for a grievous breach of the rules to which they have not offered apology (or, in the case of unparliamentary remarks, have not withdrawn the remark when asked by the Chair) through the Chair “naming” a Council Member. A “named” member is suspended from The Council for 48 hours and can not participate in any legislative action during that time. The decision to “name” a member may be appealed to The Parliamentarian.

4. The Council may take disciplinary action against any member of The Council through a majority vote. The Council may impose a written warning, reprimand, censure, suspension, or expulsion.

4A. In the event The Council proposes a suspension, a length of time must be agreed upon not to exceed the life of that Council session.

4B. A member expelled from The Council may not retake a seat in The Council except through a vote of a majority of The Council.

5. The Council may give its assent to delegate its powers of self-discipline to a committee of no fewer than 5 members of The Council to consider the matter and render an appropriate sentence.

6. A sentence of censure, suspension, or expulsion must be voted upon by the whole of The Council, even if the sentence was recommended in committee. Censure requires a majority vote of The Council, while suspension or expulsion requires a 2/3rds vote.

6A. When the whole of The Council votes on a disciplinary matter against a member, that member may not participate in the vote. If they cast a vote in a division concerning their discipline, the Chair must ignore the vote and consider it void when tallying.

7. The Chair shall have the power to remove any observer in the The Council forum who is not a citizen or Member of The Council on their own authority in the event of disorder.

X: Amendments to the Standing Rules

1. The Standing Rules may be amended at any time through a resolution receiving the support of a 2/3rds majority of members.

2. Once a resolution to amend the Standing Rules is passed, it immediately comes into effect and does not require any further action.

Schedule of Terms:

1. “The Chair” shall refer to the Presiding Officer of The Council who shall ordinarily be the President of the United Federation of Planets, otherwise the President Pro Tempore of the Federation Council, but who may extraordinarily be a Member of The Council designed to serve as Speaker.

2. “Unparliamentary Language” refers to any word or remark made with the intent to impugn the integrity of another member of The Council or the Government (i.e., implying that a member/the government lied).

3. “Members” shall refer to the Members of The Council individually who have been lawfully elected and have taken the Oath of Office during the life of that Council session and who have not been suspended or expelled by an appropriate vote of The Council.

4. “The Parliamentarian” shall refer to the Head Administrator, or other admin assigned to The Council.
Vedek Tabor Laren
President Pro Tempore of the United Federation of Planets
Counselor from Bajor

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Vedek Tabor
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Re: Hearing: Standing Rules of the Federation Council

Post by Vedek Tabor »

All time for debate has expired. No less than 72 hours for a vote on whether or not to send the resolution to the full council for consideration
Vedek Tabor Laren
President Pro Tempore of the United Federation of Planets
Counselor from Bajor

Zaar
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Re: Hearing: Standing Rules of the Federation Council

Post by Zaar »

Aye.
Councilor Eryv ch’Azaarhir
Andoria Representative
Chair of Federation Security Council
Constructistionist Party
Presidential Candidate

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Vedek Tabor
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Re: Hearing: Standing Rules of the Federation Council

Post by Vedek Tabor »

All time for voting has expired, the resolution is reported to the full council.
Vedek Tabor Laren
President Pro Tempore of the United Federation of Planets
Counselor from Bajor

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