This week’s Student Government Association meeting began with the tabling of two Senate bills.
One of the bills is a proposed Constitutional Amendment, which will combine the Bristol and Kingsport Senate seats into one seat.
The other bill is to finish the process of removing the senate clerk’s position from the code of laws, thereby completing what was started five weeks ago when it was done to the Constitution. Both bills, proposed nearly three weeks ago, should have had their second reading last week.
However, due to the fact that the bills had not been placed in the legislative notification box, a requirement that must be fulfilled for all legislation to go through, Sen. David Lane motioned to table both of them last week and again this week.
The legislative notification box allows students to be able to read all pending legislation, and is maintained by the president of the SGA. This is so they may have the ability to contact their senator and voice an opinion on legislation before the Senate votes on it.
This marks the second week running that these bills have been tabled.
In an interview, President Chad Reed cited that the box, placed on the wall near the computer lab in the Culp Center, was damaged by a pipe that broke several weeks ago.
“Due to the massive flood several Fridays ago, everything in the SGA display cases was ruined,” Reed said.
“The water damage has been semi-resolved, but not entirely,” he said.
After both bills were tabled, Lane then called for a special vote on the resolution to recognize Veteran’s Day.
Bills which time will not allow to be taken through the regular process may be deemed special legislation by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Since Veteran’s Day is so close, Lane said that the Senate did not have time to wait.
The bill, which was sponsored by Tiffany Porter, passed unanimously.
In new business, the Senate also inducted two new members. Both Brian Scott and Diana Bowers have been through the Junior Senator program.
During debate, Selections Chair Porter stated, “Both people coming through today are Junior Senators. The secretary of the interior is has done a great job preparing them.”
Porter went on to highlight the eagerness and competence of both new members, stating that they both received perfect scores during their interview process.