Before the SG Senate failed to override President Andy MacCracken's veto on a proposed oversight bill in a special session Tuesday, the senators sang "Happy Birthday" to Sen. Josh Rothman.
Sen. Nate Bronstein for the School of Public Affairs began the meeting by objecting to the proposed agenda. The meeting was called to consider overriding MacCracken's veto, but Bronstein requested adding the "Happy Birthday" song to the agenda. Sen. Josh Rothman, previously part of the prosecution team charged with presenting a case against Comptroller Matt Handverger, turned 21 Tuesday.
Speaker Anthony Dunham ordered the senators to rise and sing. They did.
The meeting was the fifth special session in the last two weeks, following the impeachment proceedings against Handverger.
Like every previous special session, the meeting commenced at 11:15 p.m. in Ward 5, but instead of discussing the minutia of timesheets, the senators began by discussing birthdays, puppies and swine flu.
The senators chatted excitedly when Vice President Alex Prescott said his office was bringing dogs to the Main Quad during midterms or finals week.
After animatedly discussing puppies, the senators turned to the oversight legislation. The bill, affectionately nicknamed the "Ballast Bill," would allow senators to request and review SG nominee's applications who were up for confirmation by the Senate.
[Editors Note: ballast -- n -- something that gives mental, moral or political stability, according to dictionary.com.]
Class of 2010 Sen. Steve Dalton, who authored the bill, encouraged the senators to pass the legislation immediately, before the Senate confirmation hearings for SG comptroller and AUTO commissioner commenced.
MacCracken said the senators could take their time with oversight legislation since the nominees for the position will not be heard for at least two weeks.
He and some senators expressed concerns that the bill had a solid foundation but that the Senate needed to take time to address its cracks.
But Dalton urged the senators to write another more comprehensive bill later and pass this one now.
Bronstein encouraged the Senate to consider the possible effects the bill could have on the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.
"We are not the legislative students, the executive students, the judicial students," he said. "We are the united students of AU."
Dalton said MacCracken chose to start the adversarial relationship by vetoing a bill that had passed 10-2 in the Senate's fourth special session.
"I don't understand why the Senate has to always be holding hands with the president of SG," he said.
After bonding over puppies and happy birthdays, the Senate was again divided by issues with the executive branch.
Dunham then told the Senate MacCracken's incumbent administration might not have to comply with the bill since it states every "new" administration must allow access to the applications.
For a moment, the Senate considered suspending the body's rules to amend the legislation. Then, a senator pointed out that the meaning of the bill would change by removing "new."
Since the meaning would change, MacCracken would have vetoed an entirely different bill. Thus, the Senate would be overriding a veto to a bill that no longer existed.
Since the senators wanted a piece of oversight legislation passed immediately and since the administration might not even have to comply with the proposed legislation, they decided to ignore the "new" momentarily and continue debating.
If the Senate wanted access to applications for the comptroller and AUTO commissioner positions, MacCracken told the Senate he would sign an executive order asking SG nominees to submit information relevant to the confirmation hearings to the senators.
In the meantime, the Senate could work on passing a bill that would affect the non-"new" administration.
The Senate voted, and Dunham announced that the veto had been overridden by a vote of 11-6-1.
The executives, who had been calculating the needed percentage of votes in their heads, raised their hands. The vote had only garnered 64.7 percent in favor of overriding the veto, less than the two-thirds vote needed, they said.
Dunham apologized, announcing that the veto had failed by a vote of 11-6-1.
At the end of the meeting, Dalton expressed his dissatisfaction with the result.
"The students out there that don't give a rat's behind about what this body does trusted in us to thoroughly review what the executive does," Dalton said. "Unfortunately, we haven't lived up to that expectation."
No legislation was discussed to wish "happy birthday" to all other September babies. No word yet on whether that bill would have passed, or whether MacCracken would have vetoed it.
