Rules Committee Topic for the 9th Session of Parliament (March 2017-April 2017)

"The Rules Committee will hereby be responsible for analyzing the application and practicality of the Parliamentary Procedure Orders defined in SO#2016-3 (“Parliamentary Procedure Orders”) and proposing Acts of Parliament (if deemed necessary by the committee) to amend the aforementioned Act to be debated and voted on by the Parliament at the beginning of the following term of Parliament" (SO 2017-11.IV.C.1).


The following members are hereby appointed to the Rules Committee for the duration of the 9th Parliament until it is dissolved on April 30, 2017:
-The Hon. Abdoa MP, Committee Chair
-The Hon. Libertarian Democracy MP
-The Hon. The Gambinos MP

The Rules Committee is summoned on April 25, 2017 to discuss the provisions of SO 2017-24, on the two questions as follows:
-whether Articles 1 and 2 of the Act as it stands in the Debate Hall violate Article VII of the Parliamentary Procedure Orders;
-whether Article 3 of this Act violates Article III Clause M of the Parliamentary Procedure Orders.
The Committee is asked to deal with these questions before the end of the debate which has been extended as far as possible.

The Chair of the Committee proposes that the bill in is entirety be amended to read as follows:

"Amendments to SO 2016-03

Article 1
To insert the following clause at the end of Article II:
“If when Parliament is dissolved, any bill has commenced steps d), f), h), i), or k), then that step must continue until completed, but after it has been completed, no further action may be taken on the bill in question until a new Parliament is convened.”

Article 2
To insert the following clause at the end of Article IV:
“If when Parliament is dissolved, any constitutional amendment has commenced steps c), d), or f), then that step must continue until completed, but after it has been completed, no further action may be taken on the bill in question until a new Parliament is convened.”

Article 3
To insert the following article after Article I and to renumber the following articles:
“The following order of business shall be followed during each session of Parliament, from the moment of convening:
Election of a Speaker pro tempore as per SO#2017-16 (“Speaker pro tempore of Parliament Act 2017”).
Unfinished business held over from the previous session of Parliament at dissolution.
Amendments to these Orders proposed in the previous session of Parliament.
New business: bills or constitutional amendments proposed during the ongoing session of Parliament.”

Article 4
To amend points g) and l) of Article II to replace the word “President” in each with the words “President’s Desk”."

If such an amendment is agreed to, pursuant to Article VII of the Procedure Orders ("[...]at the beginning of each Parliament, Amendments to these Orders may be proposed in the Drafting Hall as a bill and follow the path under the current Orders"), the bill will immediately return to the Drafting Table, to be re-scheduled for debate as an amendment to the PPOs at the beginning of the next session of Parliament.

I know this is a bit weird, but it makes sense if you reason that if a bill amends the PPOs, it needs to wait in the DT until the next session of Parliament begins. Therefore, if a bill that previously was not going to amend the PPOs if passed is amended so that it would do so, it suddenly fall under the Article VII rule which effectively bars it from being considered beyond the DT until the next session: it cannot continue to a vote on the bill itself, and needs to follow all the steps following the DT again in the next session. What does the rest of the Committee think?

I do concur with the Chair, however I do propose that an Article 5 be appended to the proposed amendment to state the following:
"To Amend Article VII: to prepend "1) " to the current text and to the following text:
'2) No bill may add, remove, amend, overrule, or otherwise affect the Parliamentary Procedure unless it is an amendment to this Document pursuant to Clause 1 of this Article.' "

The Chair of the Committee issues the following report on April 25, 2017, relevant to the debate of SO 2017-24, finding that all its active members are in concurrence:

The Rules Committee recommends that the following amendment to the bill in its entirety be adopted, in order for the bill to comply with Article VII of the Procedure Orders:

"Amendments to SO 2016-03

Article 1
To insert the following clause at the end of Article II:
“If when Parliament is dissolved, any bill has commenced steps d), f), h), i), or k), then that step must continue until completed, but after it has been completed, no further action may be taken on the bill in question until a new Parliament is convened.”

Article 2
To insert the following clause at the end of Article IV:
“If when Parliament is dissolved, any constitutional amendment has commenced steps c), d), or f), then that step must continue until completed, but after it has been completed, no further action may be taken on the bill in question until a new Parliament is convened.”

Article 3
To insert the following article after Article I and to renumber the following articles:
“The following order of business shall be followed during each session of Parliament, from the moment of convening:
Election of a Speaker pro tempore as per SO#2017-16 (“Speaker pro tempore of Parliament Act 2017”).
Unfinished business held over from the previous session of Parliament at dissolution.
Amendments to these Orders proposed in the previous session of Parliament.
New business: bills or constitutional amendments proposed during the ongoing session of Parliament.”

Article 4
To amend points g) and l) of Article II to replace the word “President” in each with the words “President’s Desk”.

Article 5
To Amend Article VII: to prepend "1)" to the current text and to append the following text:
'2) No bill may add, remove, amend, overrule, or otherwise affect the Parliamentary Procedure unless it is an amendment to this Document pursuant to Clause 1 of this Article.'"

The Rules Committee also recommends that if this amendment is adopted, the bill should immediately return to the Drafting Table, to be re-scheduled for debate as an amendment to the PPOs at the beginning of the next session of Parliament.

Signed,
The Hon. Abdoa MP GSM LSM, Chair of the Rules Committee