Senate Committee Structure

[Filuwaúrdjan]

One thing the Senate is supposed to do (but has never done) is do the Budget etc... the one attempt to do this (Omnibus Appropriations Bill) was written by a single Senator, was fairly extreme and got voted down on the Senate floor.

At the same time the Senate needs to be a more effective check on the Executive, no matter who is in power.

I think a simple (and more or less informal) committee structure (let's say three members on each) would enable the Senate to execute it's constitutionally mandated roles better than it has been doing recently.

We need a Taxation committee, an Appropriations committee (these two have to be kept seperate) and a committee dealing with foriegn/defense stuff. The PPT/Speaker/Whatever shouldn't be a member of a committee.
If for any reason we need to set up a new committee, we can do it.

I volunteer to be on Appropriations.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I would have though taxation would be more you're thing

[Filuwaúrdjan]

May I be on the Education, Health and Welfare Committee?

That's a good committee idea as well... basically if we can all keep the whole committee structure fairly informal it should work.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nothing is set in stone: if we have a fairly informal committee structure it won't scare people away from becoming Senators and we'd also be doing what the Constitution says we should be doing (ie: the Budget).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Colin's idea is quite good actually... and so is Pete's

[Filuwaúrdjan]

We need another member on Appropriations & Taxation. Seeing as Gabu proposed that military spending wossname, he's being "volunteered" for the third place on the commitee ;-)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

We need another member on Appropriations & Taxation. Seeing as Gabu proposed that military spending wossname, he's being "volunteered" for the third place on the commitee ;-)

I proposed that bill for John Ford and I'm already on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Are you? O.K... that means only Siege and WMS aren't on a committee. I'd be happy to have either :-)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

We need some more people in the EHW Committee.  Me and Nym do not constitute a committee.

If no one else wants it, I'm fine with moonlighting

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If you want to go with Senators picking their committees in order of seniority, the order is presently as follows (not including JFK):

1. States (April Midterms)
2. Nym90 (Oct Midterms)
=  Defarge
=  Bono
5. Siege40 (byelection to fill Migrendel seat in Nov)
6. Al (Dec Midterms)
=  Supersoulty
=  WMS
=  Gabu
Quite how you would work out the sixth place tie would be interesting.

I think keeping things informal is a better idea...