Stop Failing Quorums Act

[greymc]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
​

---

A BILL TO

ALLOW VOTING TO LAST LONGER




​

---

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:


​

PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘Stop Failing Quorums Act’

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon assent.

(3) This Act has been authored by Speaker Grey Fontaine.

(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Deputy Speaker Hat Man.

(5) This Act amends the following acts:

(a) Legislative Standards Act

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) The senate and house can sometimes be sleepy, and fail quorum on certain bills and motions. To prevent this from happening and needing the bill to be reconsidered & proposed again, this act will allow the presiding officers of each chamber to extend voting by up to 24 hours on most bills & motions.

(2) Extension cannot happen if the bill is urgently considered or during caretaker.

(3) Also, a new motion is introduced to allow both Representatives & Senators to extend voting by up to 48 more hours.

PART II - AMENDMENTS

3. Legislative Standards Act

(1) §9(2-3) of the Legislative Standards Act shall be amended as follows:

(2) After at least 24 hours have passed, the Speaker will then add a publicly visible poll in which congressional members will be able to vote on the bill for a 48 hour voting period and the prefix will be changed to Bill: Voting.
(i) The Speaker may extend voting by up to 24 hours at their discretion. The Speaker may not extend voting when Congress is in caretaker or when the bill is urgently considered.

(3) The Speaker may declare the vote closed if: all votes have been submitted, or a majority is reached. Should the vote not be closed by the Speaker it will be automatically closed after 48 hours have the allotted time for voting has passed. After the vote closes:

(a) If the Bill is passed, the Presiding Officer of the House will change the Bill status to Bill: Pending and move it to the Senate, notifying the President of the Senate; or

(b) If the Bill is rejected, the Presiding Officer of the House will change the Bill status to Bill: Rejected and move it to the Rejected sub-forum.

(2) §9(4-5) of the Legislative Standards Act shall be amended as follows:

(4) When debate is finished in the Senate, the President of the Senate will re-open the publicly visible poll for 48 hours. The prefix will be changed to Bill: Voting.
(i) The President of the Senate may extend voting by up to 24 hours at their discretion. The President of the Senate may not extend voting when Congress is in caretaker or when the bill is urgently considered.

(5) The President of the Senate may declare the vote closed if: all votes have been submitted; or a majority is reached. Should the vote not be closed by the President of the Senate, it will be automatically closed after 48 hours have the allotted time for voting has passed. After the vote closes:

(a) If the Bill is passed, the Presiding Officer of the Senate will move the bill to the Congressional forum applying the 'awaiting assent' prefix, notifying the President for their assent; or

(b) If the Bill is rejected, the Presiding Officer of the Senate will change the Bill status to Bill: Rejected and move it to the Rejected sub-forum with Senate recommendations in the comments.

(11) §9(16) of the Legislative Standards Act shall be enumerated as follows:

(16) Motion to Extend

(1) A motion to extend may move to extend either voting or the Senate debate period by a period of up to 48 hours.

(2) A motion to extend voting can be passed by either chamber on a bill that is undergoing voting in that chamber.

(3) A motion to extend debate can be passed only by the Senate during the debate period on a bill.

(4) A bill may not proceed forwards if there is currently a motion to extend it. Should a motion to extend pass after a bill has concluded debate or voting in the chamber, it shall be reopened with the allotted time.

(5) A motion to extend will close after 12 hours; however, it will instead close after 24 hours if the bill fails quorum or the absolute floor after the initial 12 hours.

(6) A motion to extend cannot be proposed during caretaker.