Members of the house of delegates were taken by surprise when they discovered their newly written codes had been altered by someone in the student senate before the senate passed the legislation.
House Speaker Chip Fallaw said no one in the house was aware the changes had been made and said it was a miscommunication between the two bodies.
“We assumed that with what we gave them, they understood it was in addition to the original codes,” Fallaw said. “They misinterpreted.”
Student Government has been in the process of conducting a legislative overhaul over the past several months, updating the organization’s codes, including those of the house of delegates. The codes, previously known as the 100 to 700 codes, are being rewritten and renamed as Chapters 1 to 7.
The original 700 codes established the house of delegates and mandated that any changes to the codes be approved by both the senate and the house concurrently.
However, the codes did not include several provisions necessary to the body, such as a number to establish quorum, the responsibilities of delegates or the relationship between the house and senate.
In order to fill in the gaps the codes left behind, the house penned Chapter 7, with the intention that it would be added on to the existing codes.
However, between when the house passed Chapter 7 and when it appeared before the senate for a vote, pieces of the language had been changed.
A line was added to the beginning of the bill, which read, “the following Codes will be stricken and amended to read as follows,” but did not specify which codes were to be stricken. Therefore, Chapter 7 was passed through the senate, but was not added to the old codes, as the house intended, nor did it strike them, as the senate intended.
The bill was tweaked by someone in the senate without the knowledge of anyone in the house, Fallaw said. He said he was never contacted about the changes and did not learn of them until senate convened Wednesday.
“[Senate] assumed that [Chapter 7] struck the 700 codes, when it did not,” Fallaw said. “It was intended to add on to the 700 codes.”
Members of the senate assumed Chapter 7 would strike the 700 codes and passed the bill immediately. It was only after the legislation had passed that the error was recognized.
Following the bill’s passage, Anna Lyles, chair of the senate judiciary committee, motioned for a five minute recess to discuss the vote with house representatives, but the motion failed. Instead, house members, including Fallaw, met in the hallway while the senate remained in session.
The 700 codes say that the house’s codes cannot be changed by the senate without the house’s knowledge; the newly written Chapter 7 does not.
Currently, both the 700 codes and Chapter 7 exist, which is a violation of SG’s constitution, according to Trenton Smith, chief of staff for current Student Body Vice President Ryan Bailey.
“It was assumed that the house of delegates knew it was unconstitutional,” Smith said. “You can’t have Chapter 7 with the 700 codes.”
No amendments to the bill were proposed Wednesday because the senate adjourned early, because the SG election results were scheduled to be announced that night.
“It was a time crunch issue,” Lyles said. “There was a real lack of communication.”
Fallaw said the house assumed the senate understood they wanted Chapter 7 to be added to the old codes, while Lyles said the senate thought the house meant to strike them.
Both Fallaw and Lyles said they were unsure of who in the senate made the changes to the house’s legislation.
In order to correct the error, house representatives plan to introduce the text of the original codes in the form of an amendment to the senate floor next week. This way, if the amendment is passed, the text of the original codes and everything added in Chapter 7 will exist in one piece of legislation, and the old codes can be stricken.
Additionally, Lyles said she plans to meet with house leadership to discuss the issue before senate meets again next week.
“I’m going to sit down with house of delegates representatives Sunday and talk about it,” Lyles said. “I don’t want any of this to happen again.”