First Amendment to the Republican Executive Act
Drafted by: Wolfmanne (P-CP)
Co-Sponsors: Divair (CSP), Regnum Dominae (LFP), Malgrave (USLP), Maklohi Vai (LDP), Glasgia (LDP), Ainin (TR)
Urgency: Necessary, but not vital
Office of Vice President
1a. The office of Vice President of Aurentina shall be formally established.
1b. The Vice President of Aurentina shall be appointed by the President upon his immediate election.
1c. The Vice President is to take over the role of President, in periods in which the President is unavailable.
1d. The Vice President may only assume his role if the President is unavailable or is inactive.
1e. If the President has been unavailable or inactive for a long period of time, the Vice President is to ascend to the office of President of Aurentina.
1f. In a regular period of time, the President is permitted delegate his powers and responsibilities to the Vice President and may establish limits to how much power the Vice President gets in a regular period of time.
1g. Upon the resignation of the President, if he does the Vice President is to take over and continue the remainder of the President's term time.
Council of State
2a. The Council of State shall be formally established as a non-executive advisory council to the President.
2b. The Council of State shall be formally headed by the Vice President of Aurentina and shall provide advise to the President, whether on or whether not on request.
2c. The Council of State may not consist of a number of individual exceeding the number of 20, including the Vice President however it is not mandated for all 20 seats to be occupied.
2d. The Council of State is mandated to include the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, Minister of Treasury and Finance (Exchequer) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to the regular holders in the Council of State; these five offices are collectively to be referred to as the Great Offices of State.
2e. The Council of State, whilst it may hold elections regarding a decision on what advice to give to the President, the President, or any individual for that matter, is not legally obliged to follow the orders of an elected decision of the Council of State and their role is purely advisory only.
Officers of the Senate
3a. Whilst it has been established that the office of 'President of the Senate' exists in previous acts, the powers of President of the Senate are yet to be defined.
3b. The President of the Senate is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, monitor the amount of votes recorded and announce the results of votes.
3c. The office of President of the Senate is mandated to be held simultaneously by the Vice President of the Senate.
3d. The office of Vice President of the Senate has also been established through previous acts. This position has hereby been renamed to President pro tempore of the Senate to avoid confusion with the President of the Senate, who simultaneously holds the office of Vice President of Aurentina.
3e. The President pro tempore of the Senate shall act in the place of the President of the Senate and carry out his responsibilities on his behalf. He shall be formally appointed by the President of the Senate and he must have the confidence of a supermajority of the Senate to be defined as 75% of all voting senators.
3f. The President pro tempore of the Senate shall be legally delegated all powers of the President of the Senate, however he may not be delegated the powers of Vice President of Aurentina.
3g. The President of the Senate, or the President pro tempore of the Senate acting on his behalf, shall appoint a Secretary of the Senate, who is responsible for administrative tasks such as counting votes, organising or recording down the official legislative queue and any other administrative tasks. The President of the Senate, or the President pro tempore of the Senate acting on his behalf, is permitted to appoint a number of Assistant Secretaries of the Senate (referred to in singular form as Assistant Secretary of the Senate), to aid in the task of the Secretary of Senate.
3h. The office of Administrator of the Senate is hereby established. An Administrator of the Senate shall be defined as Senators formally permitted to ensure that discipline is maintained among the Senators. Being an Administrator of the Senate is a hallowed privilege and new Administrators can only be selected by current Administrators. Administrators can only be fired by the consent of other Administrators.
3i: The office of Founder of the Senate is established and shall be eternally held by Denecaep, who is also recognised as the only Senator for Life, for his extremely important role in the founding of the Senate. He shall hold the position even in his death and no one else may hold the position.
3j. In the absence of the President of the Senate, President pro tempore, the Secretary of the Senate, an Assistant Secretary of the Senate or an Administrator of the Senate, are permitted to act in the place of the President of the Senate.
3k. It is recommended by this act that the President of the Senate, as he can be delegated the powers of Presidency, does not take an active role as the Presiding Officer of the Senate and instead recommends that the President pro tempore of the Senate leads proceedings.
3l. The Prime Minister is to be recognised as the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Deputy Prime Minister as the Deputy Majority Leader. Meanwhile, the Opposition is permitted to designate a Leader of the Opposition, who is to be recognised as the Minority Leader of the Senate, who may appoint a Shadow Cabinet with a shadow minister for each Minister in the Council of Ministers. The Shadow Cabinet must include a Deputy Leader of the Oppposition, who is to be recognised as the Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate and is to be the shadow ministers of the Deputy Prime Minister. The Leader of the Opposition is required to be a Senator with a simple majority of opposition Senators (defined as Senators that the current government doesn't recognise as part of the Majority or as a Senator who voted against the appointment of this Prime Minister) supporting the Senator appointed to Leader of the Opposition. A plurality is not considered acceptable.
3m. The President of the Senate or the President pro tempore of the Senate may extend the debating period for 12 hours if at least 7 Senators move for an extension.
Legislative queuejumping
4a. Establishes a new power to the President of Aurentina, referred to as legislative queuejumping.
4b. Senators are permitted to petition to the President of Aurentina to rearrange the queue to allow a number of bills, include those that have been omnibused, to be voted on at a sooner time. A formal petition with a minimum of seven Senators signing it is required before any legislative queuejumping can commence. Alternative methods includes a Letter of Recommendation from a member of the Council of Ministers.
4c. Usage of legislative queuejumping is to be at the discretion of the President and it is strongly recommended that he seeks advice of the Council of State before he makes a decision.
4d. The President of Aurentina then rearranges the queue to how he see fits and the President of the Senate, or the President pro tempore acting in his place, formally posts the new queue.
4e. This act strongly recommends that the President of Aurentina expresses extreme discretion before using his power of legislative queuejumping and recognises that improper usage of it is a cause of his immediate Impeachment.
4f. If the Vice President is carrying out the duties of the President of Aurentina due to his absence or inactivity, then he can not be the one who formally posts the new queue; only the President pro tempore may do so.
Senatorial Committees
5a. This bill permits Ministers to establish Senatorial Committees, which are recommended to be multipartisan, to advise them on issues regarding their portfolio.
5b. A committee is to be titled Senatorial Committee on [PORTFOLIO OF THE MINISTER]'. The Minister is to be the Chairman and he may appoint a Deputy Chairman to carry out his duties on his behalf.
5c. A Minister is not required to listen to the elected decision of a Senatorial Committee.
5d. It is permitted for a permanent committee under the authority of the relevant Minister to be established if 2/3 of Senators voting approves of it's status of permanence.
5e. Non-permanent committees may be dismissed at will by the Chairman, whilst permanent committees can only be disbanded with the approval of 2/3 of voting Senators.
Constitution of Aurentina
6a. In the Republican Executive Act, provisions for remanding or vetoing a bill is established as a power for the President; he may do this once if a bill is unconstitutional and it require a full explanation. However, this is an inefficient system and hereby Article 1, Section EI, is repealed.
6b. An alternative system for a constitutional veto is proposed by this bill, with the President having the ability to make one veto to the Senate if he or she believe that it breaks the constitution. The second time is comes up, if the President believes it's still unconstitutional, then the bill is passed over to the the highest court in the land delegated with the ability to trial cases regarding constitutional law, upon the establishment of a judicial system.
6c. It is mandated that all acts signed into law by the President undergoes judicial review by the highest court in the land delegated with the ability to trial cases regarding constitutional law and reviews whether it is indeed constitutional. If not, it may issue a decree mandating that the President formally vetoes it. If so, then the act is to be formally recognised as being part of the law of the land.
6d. A formal document referred to as the 'Constitution of Aurentina', consisting of the codification of acts that are deemed to define the constitution of this nation, is to be created.
6e. Upon the passing of this amendment, the Constitution of Aurentina is to consist of the Judicial Act, the Republican Executive Act, the Ministry Foundation Act, the National Symbols Act, First Amendment to the Republican Executive Act and the Constitution of the New Senate.
6f. Bills must specify on whether they are to be amended to the Constitution of Aurentina; if so then, they require a 2/3 supermajority of Senators voting to be added to the Constitution of Aurentina.
Regarding the Second Constitution of the Senate
7a. Repeals Article 1, Section 6 of the Second Constitution of the Senate, on the condition that the Second Constitution of the Senate due to the fact that it sees the President of the Senate as being a Majority Leader rather than a speaker (in light of this, Article 3l Section L has been added to this bill), Article 2, Section 3 as it allows the queue to be changed with only the approval of one Administrator; this bill has a fairer system, as the President is the one who changes the queue and if he does it in poor faith, he is accountable to the Senate and can be impeached and Article 2, Section 5, as it is fairer for the President of the Senate or the President pro tempore to decide this.
