The USC Undergraduate Student Government approved a bill on Tuesday evening to amend the senate meeting rules to include the process to remove the speaker of the senate.
While onboarding procedures for the speaker of the senate are included in the senate meeting rules, no process to remove the speaker had formerly existed. Chief Justice Susanna Andryan drafted a new process with help from the judicial council.
“We decided that we should revisit some of these [rules],” Andryan said, “And we noticed that there is no removal process for speaker.”
The current speaker, Senator Diana Carpio, said the senate’s decision to hear this proposal did not worry her.
“I am personally not scared of any [removal process],” she said. “Removal process of the speaker is something that doesn’t really intimidate me.”
The new rule states that a proposal to initiate the removal of the speaker can be sent to the judicial council by either the executive cabinet or a senator.
If a senator wishes to remove the speaker, they can submit their proposal to the judicial council via email with their signature and the signatures of two other supporting senators. No explanation is necessary.
All cabinet members must sign the proposal if the executive cabinet proposes to remove the speaker. The speaker must abstain from voting.
The judicial council presides over the vote but does not decide whether a call to vote should occur. The senators will vote within 48 hours of proposing the removal, and the vote must be a two-thirds majority to remove the speaker from office.
The vote will be done by secret ballot that only the judicial council can access, and the speaker will not be present. If the sitting speaker is removed from office, they will only be removed from the duties of the speaker of the senate. They will not be removed as a senator.
Once removed, there will be a six-week cool-down period once the new speaker is onboarded. This means senators and cabinet members are restricted from calling another vote to remove them. If the speaker is not removed, the cool-down period is two weeks.
The restriction remains unaffected if the speaker resigns voluntarily or is removed for disciplinary reasons.
If a speaker removal is considered, the results of the vote will be announced via email immediately following the meeting’s conclusion. If the speaker is removed, the vice president will oversee the election of a new speaker within two weeks, under existing Senate meeting rules.
Senators also voted to approve a bill that allows committee chairs to formally appoint commissions within their legislative committees. These committees can include members of the student body at large. However, a clause limits each committee to only two standing commissions at one time.
This bill is designed to increase student body inclusion and act as an entryway for students potentially interested in USG.