Third Amendment to Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 of the OSPR [Passed]

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm glad to see this come to the floor so quickly.

The point of the bill, of course, is to give the Senate the ability to discuss current events both domestic and international by creating a slot independent of the queue.

As such, the only change to current Senate proceedure caused by this bill is creating one more slot which can be filled by any bill in the queue at the PPT's discretion.

It creates a modest new power for the PPT, which will hopefully (1) increase interest in the PPT slot, perhaps creating competition for the slot at the start of the next Senate; (2) quickly whittle down the queue by creating a new slot; and (3) encourage Senators to propose new legislation knowing that anything they propose will hit the floor during that Senate, and not some Senate 6 or 8 months down the road.

I mean, seriously, we just finished debating DWTL's bills about a month ago.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm a bit wary about creating so many new legislative slots at once without a dire need to eat into the queue (which has seemingly become more managable in the last few months at least).

I'll support the bill for final passage either way, but I think I'm leaning against the amendment.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I believe a moderate sized queue is a good thing.  It keeps the Senate going for a little while should there be a period of few new bill introductions.

The main point of my bill isn't so much to eat into the queue, but to give the Senate the ability to discuss current events (domestic and international) and to encourage Senators to introduce legislation to do just that.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

It took until my re-election campaign for my bills I introduced in my first week to get to the floor. I think we're safe to add a couple of extra slots to move things along. It will wipe some of the last of the arcane American system left in Atlasia right off the map.

There's almost nothing American about the way the Senate handles new bills.  The idea that any Senator can propose a bill and see it voted on by the full Senate is certainly not something that happens in the U.S. Senate (if there ever was a thing).

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

The amount of legislation already allowed on the floor virtually assures that anything that deals with a noncontroversial issue is ignored and left to pass without debate.

That's unlikely to change regardless of how many slots there are.  I mean, what's the point in debating something that we all agree on?

That's one of the main problems about having naught but liberals and liberal-minded moderates here in the Senate, but I digress.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

That's one of the main problems about having naught but liberals and liberal-minded moderates here in the Senate, but I digress.

If we're all liberals (which we most certainly are not), then perhaps a better classification would be between those who understand basic things like using the term "United States" is not a covert attempt to drastically alter Atlasian foreign policy and those who don't.

We're for debate except for when we're against it. 

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Nay.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'd like to motion for a final vote on this.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Aye.