BE IT ENACTED BY THE STATE OF FIRESTONE STATE LEGISLATURE HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
SECTION I: The Congressional Government Oversight Committee shall not restart or re-elect any members upon passage of this bill. Any changes made to the Congressional Government Oversight Committee shall be applied as soon as possible by the current members of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee.
SECTION II: The Congressional Government Oversight Committee shall be recognized as an official Firestone State Legislature committee. The purpose of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee, or informally known as the ‘CGOC’, shall be to ensure of no corruption, criminal activity, or anything that may require action by the State of Firestone legislature, whether it be impeachment or passage of a bill, or any action by the State of Firestone legislature is occurring within the State of Firestone. Any individual apart of the State of Firestone government may be investigated, and action may be taken accordingly.
SECTION III: The Congressional Government Oversight Committee shall contain twelve members in total. There shall be five members from the House of Representatives, five members from the Senate, a Scribe, and a Chairman/Chairwoman. The Chairman/Chairwoman must be elected by the members of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee. The Speaker of the House, Lieutenant Governor, or Governor has the ability to host elections for Chairman/Chairwoman. Once a Chairman/Chairwoman is elected, the chamber that the Chairman/Chairwoman was apart of shall elect another member from the chamber to fill that vacancy. No one shall host elections for Chairman if they are a candidate themselves.
SECTION IV: The Speaker of the House shall host elections for open seats for House members within the Congressional Government Oversight Committee. The Lieutenant Governor shall host elections for open seats for Senators within the Congressional Government Oversight Committee. In the event that either the Speaker of the House or the Lieutenant Governor is running for a seat within their respective chamber for a seat in the Congressional Government Oversight Committee, a member of their chamber shall host elections that include either the Speaker of the House or Lieutenant Governor in the election. If everyone in the chamber is running, then the Governor shall host the elections. Elections for the Congressional Government Oversight Committee must be held when a seat has opened up from either chamber, and at the end of every term. At the end of every term, all members shall no longer have a seat on the Congressional Government Oversight Committee, and elections shall be commenced as stated in this legislation.
SECTION V: The Chairman/Chairwoman shall be the only one to host all sessions, excluding the elections of the Chairman/Chairwoman. However, if needed, the Chairman/Chairwoman may designate one person from the committee to hold a session. If at anytime a proposal is presented, it needs to be approved by the Chairman/Chairwoman, and a majority of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee must vote in favor of it. Should it pass both the Chairman/Chairwoman and pass the committee, a session must be held to go over the proposal and make a determination if the individual the proposal is accusing of a crime or any wrongdoing did in fact do a crime, wrongdoing, et cetera. At any given time, a proposal may be retracted by only the Chairman/Chairwoman. The rest of the committee may override the retraction with a 2/3 majority in favor of overriding the retraction. During a session, the Congressional Government Oversight Committee can do the following, but are not limited to, during a session: Summon the individual in question, summon witnesses, go over evidence, have a debate, have a questioning period, et cetera. The Chairman/Chairwoman shall be able to pick and choose what goes on in his/her session. A proposal must state what action the author of the proposal wishes the Congressional Government Oversight Committee to do. If a Chairman/Chairwoman declines to accept a proposal, he/she must inform all members of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee. If the members of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee wish to pass the proposal, 2/3 of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee must approve the proposal, and it shall pass. The Chairman/Chairwoman of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee at any time may exclude any individual from voting only if the Chairman/Chairwoman has a valid reason. The Congressional Government Oversight Committee may override this order with a motion described in SECTION VI.
SECTION VI: The following motions are the only motions allowed during any session by the Congressional Government Oversight Committee:
Motion to initiate a vote on [issue/topic]:
Essentially motion to previous question, but is more broad. Requires a second and ⅔ supermajority.
Motion to initiate debate on [issue/topic]:
Essentially motion to open debate, but is more broad. Requires a second and ½ simple majority.
Motion to initiate debate behind closed doors on [issue/topic]:
Essentially motion to open debate, but is more broad, and removes any and all members of the audience for the duration of the debate. Classified material may be discussed. The scribe will only record information if directly allowed by the Chairman/Chairwoman. Once debate ends, the audience may return.
Motion to close doors for the remainder of the session:
Removes any and all members of the audience until the session has concluded. Classified material may be discussed. The scribe will only record information if directly allowed by the Chairman/Chairwoman. Requires a second, ⅔ supermajority, and consent of the Chairman/Chairwoman.
Motion to close doors for [time]:
Removes any and all members of the audience until the time period allotted has passed. Classified material may be discussed. The scribe will only record information if directly allowed by the Chairman/Chairwoman. Requires a second and ⅔ supermajority.
Motion to open doors:
Allows members of the audience to return until the session has concluded or a motion to close doors (of any variety) successfully passes.Classified material is no longer allowed to be discussed, and the scribe will continue recording any and all information. Requires a second ⅔ supermajority, and consent of the Chairman/Chairwoman.
Motion to request the scribe provide…:
Orders the scribe to provide information to the committee. Requires a second and ½ simple majority.
Motion to override the Chair on [order]:
Should any motion require the consent of the chair and the chair does not grant consent, or a proposal is vetoed by the chair this motion may override the chairs decision and grant consent regardless, or the Chairman orders a committee member excluded from voting, or a motion to be struck down, or forcing the Chairman/Chairwoman to write a summon. Requires a super majority (2/3) vote of all committee members, excluding the Chairman/Chairwoman.
Congress may add and remove motions with other legislation.
SECTION VII: The job of the Scribe shall be to record all sessions from the very beginning to the very end, release any official documents (the Chairman/Chairwoman shall be able to do so as well), et cetera. Classified information shall be recorded, however, no one but the Chairman/Chairwoman and whoever the Chairman/Chairwoman allows to see the information shall be permitted to see classified information recorded by the Scribe. The Scribe may not distribute any information about anything to anyone without permission from the Chairman/Chairwoman. At the end of each session, the Scribe shall release everything done during such session. The Scribe holds no power in voting, and may not file any motion.
SECTION VIII: All summons, which may only be issued by the Chairman/Chairwoman, must be followed by the person the summon is directed to. The summon must be issued at least forty-eight hours beforehand of the actual session. If the person it is directed to is unable to attend at the set time with a reasonable excuse, he/she shall inform the Chairman/Chairwoman as soon as possible, and the summon shall be amended from there. It shall be up to the Chairman/Chairwoman to determine if the excuse provided is reasonable enough, however, the individual the summon is directed to may challenge the decisions in court, where it shall be upon the discretion of the courts to fairly determine if the excuse is reasonable or not. Summons may only be written by the Chairman/Chairwoman, and upon the discretion of the Chairman/Chairwoman.
SECTION IX: Beforehand of any session, anyone involved, excluding the members of the Congressional Government Oversight Committee, must be sworn in. The Chairman/Chairwoman must swear those who are in need of it in. They must be sworn in no more than thirty minutes beforehand. Beforehand of being sworn in, they shall be asked if they are religious or not.
If religious, the oath shall go as followed:
‘Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, and only the truth, so help you God?’
If non-religious, the oath shall go as followed:
‘Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, and only the truth?’
If any individual who took this oath goes against the words said in the oath, they shall be convicted of ‘contempt of congress’ by the courts, and sentenced to no more than four hours in the State Penitentiary, and no less than one hour in the State Penitentiary. If any individual does not show up to the date the summons states and does not follow the procedures stated in this legislation if they are unable to attend, they shall also be convicted of ‘contempt of congress’ and sentenced to no more than four hours in the State Penitentiary, and no less than one hour in the State Penitentiary. Should any individual purposely throw the investigation off track, lie, spread and/or provided falsified information, they shall be convicted of ‘perjury’ by the courts and be sentenced accordingly. If any individual documents any session that is held by the Congressional Government Oversight Committee without authorization by the Chairman/Chairwoman, they shall also be convicted of ‘contempt of congress’ and sentenced to no less than one hour in the State Penitentiary and no more than seven hours in the State Penitentiary.
SECTION X:The Chairman/Chairwoman shall be permitted to order any release of any documentation, photograph, or anything the Chairman/Chairwoman orders, so long as it does not violate the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Any individual ordered to release anything shall have a minimum of forty-eight hours to provide what is requested, and a maximum of seven days.
SECTION XI: ‘A Bill to Properly Establish the Congressional Government Oversight Committee’ shall be repealed upon passage of this legislation.
SECTION XII: ‘A Bill to Properly Establish the Congressional Government Oversight Committee’ shall be defined as: A Bill to Properly Establish the Congressional Government Oversight Committee
SECTION XIII: ‘A Joint Resolution to Establish the Congressional Investigations Committee’ shall be officially repealed upon passage of this legislation.
SECTION XIV: ‘A Joint Resolution to Establish the Congressional Investigations Committee’ shall be defined as: [A Joint Resolution to Establish the Congressional Investigations Committee]
SECTION XV: This legislation shall be enforced by the Firestone government.
Respectfully submitted to the Firestone State Legislature,
JamesDitomosso,
Senator, Chairman of CGOC, Author
Clonemep
Representative, Co-Sponsor
CannonOblivion
Senator, Co-Sponsor
a_sbestos
Senator, Co-Sponsor
DevMartavis
Senator, Co-Sponsor
Myxtro
Senator, Co-Sponsor
Baron_Natertot8425
Senator, Co-Sponsor
MartynLafayette
Senator, Co-Sponsor
FightingTheFlames
Representative, Co-Sponsor
T4NJ1M
Senator, Co-Sponsor