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General Procedures | Procedures for the President of the Senate and Speaker of the Assembly | Consent Calendar | Use of Pages | Decorum and Debate | Amending Bills | Motions – Their Meanings and Effects | Gavel Raps | Voting

Amending Bills

Any change to a Bill is considered an Amendment. Youth Legislators shall put a good deal of thought into amending a Bill. Amendments, which are frivolous, accomplish nothing, waste valuable time, and can create discord within the group. Time has been set-aside during the Committee session to correct spelling, typographical, or grammatical errors without using the amending procedure. Use this time!

Requirements

• • All amendments are to be submitted to the Chair, clearly written on the proper form.
• Bill Titles may NOT be amended except to correct a spelling/typing error.
• Before proposing an amendment, the delegate must ask himself/herself “Will this action truly improve this Bill?”
• Proper Format
  
  - If replacing material, delete the existing material first, then add the new material.
  - Care must be taken to make sure that the amendment is consistent with the rest of the Bill, e.g. Title, Sections, Numbering, etc.
  - If a Section is being added to a long Bill, the new Section should be numbered as “IIB”, thus negating the need to renumber the entire Bill.
  - When referring to punctuation marks, use the word rather than the symbol, e.g. “delete the comma and insert a semicolon”.
  - If extensive changes are being made, the existing material should be deleted and the entire new material inserted. o Normally it is not necessary to indicate both the word before and the word after the new material. When it is necessary for clarity to do so, write “on page 2, line 35 after ‘of’ and before ‘state’ insert ‘the’”.
  - Always use the clearest and simplest language and construction.
  
• Procedure o The Amendment Sponsor shall submit the written Amendment to the Chair during a Con speech in debate.
  - The Clerk/Secretary shall read the Amendment aloud.
  -The Sponsor is given 1 minute to present a statement of position on the Amendment.
  - Followed by two rounds of Con-Pro debate on the Amendment.
  - Amendments may be amended – but only once.
  - This issue is brought to a vote. Vote needed to pass is a simple majority of the members of the body.