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*Lycan had chosen to leave the DSW in the capable hands of his sister Kelly Derakas and had taken just his flagship and his warship "The Mirage" and "The Pride of Korriban" as the ships headed out of DSW space and into the unknown regions of space in the outer rim as he stayed in his command throne onboard The Mirage the other smaller class of ship was within the forward bays of the massive ship. Lycan ordered the crews to rotation shift and had left all comms lines open to search for a noble quest for the old Sith Lord, he had hit 5000 years of age and was still young for his species maybe in this quest or search he would find his species, the Scarrens had vanished after a war with the Jedi their loses to great to stay on their homeworld scattered to the far reaches of the galaxy as far as the old scrolls in the Derakas palace vaults said.((more to come))

STARTERS NOTE: Let me know if you can work with any of the starters bellow as they are or if you want me to personalize them to better fit your character and story! | ~* STARTER 1 The Roman Republic - the City of Capua Relations between Rome and the Persian-Parthian Empire, collectively known as Iranians, had long been tense. While the once again united Iranian nation strove to regain the territories of their once vast empire, the largest the word had ever known, before being invaded by Alexander of Macedonia and divided by his general following his death, the emerging Roman force in the west also sought to bring under their dominance all the territories that Alexander had once claimed and then go even further. Yet, such concepts served only to further sway the men whose accord was needed for such endeavors and motivate the men who had to partake in the impending military campaigns essential in the completion of such goals. The main reason for conquest was a simpler one, which was the main reason for all wars, namely resources, and the east was a rich land overflowing with unique items and astonishing novelties. For many years now Rome had eagerly drunk from the rich spring flowing from the east, to the point that it had become dependent on those luxurious commodities, especially the aristocracy which, in no way different from the aristocracies of other nations, better secured their position by constantly amazing their fellow citizens with some bewildering novelty that they alone had come to possess. As the Roman Republic continued to expand and develop, the task of securing a constant flow of the now much needed commodities from the east became a thing of great concern, especially since the Iranians had once again secured control over much of their former empire, except for the coastal regions of the Middle Sea and Anatolia, including the Kingdom of Armina, the northern neighbor of the Persian-Parthian Empire. To the west, the barrier between the Empire of the Iranians and the territories either directly or indirectly controlled by the Roman Republic, was the river Ufrātu River. Long, arduous battles between the Romans and the Iranians, with grave casualties on either sides, made the two nations realize that they had met their equal and neither could be able to definitively defeat and subdue the other. Whatever victories either side might gain, it would only be temporary and the balance would soon shift, reverting the order of things to its previous state. This was due to the vastness of the territories controlled by either side and the diverse array of nations that inhabited those lands, with the people of the western and eastern hemispheres generally being at odds with each other in both culture, tradition and way of life, despite some similarities that proved the differences were merely the result of different contexts. Continuous warfare would offer the people of both nations a tense and scarce existence, with the need to divert most resources towards sustaining military campaigns. As such, the primary means of assuring future prosperity and social development became trade, an emblem of civilization after all. To ensure the stability and security of trade routes, the Iranians and Romans first had to come to terms on a multitude of relating subjects and sign detailed treaties. Ambassadors from both sides were sent to the partner nation where they would be granted residence and the freedom to represent the interests of their nation, while respecting the laws of that land. On more important occasions, high representatives of each nation would visit their commercial partners in their homeland. This type of visit brought Maniya to Rome for a second time, although the first time when the visit was an official one and of such high stature. Following her marriage to the second-oldest son of the King of Kings, almost two years before, Maniya kept her adoptive name of Mahtab and continued to perform the duties that came with being the heir of the House Kurush-Hakhāmanish, the oldest, wealthiest and most prominent Iranian dynasty. Due to her previous knowledge and experience in such matters, as well as being more familiar with the Roman world, mostly because of the tortures she had suffered at their hands - something she kept secret and no longer sought vengeance for, Maniya was allowed by the King of Kings, with the joint approval of the Royal Council, to head the diplomatic mission to Rome. She was the one who made the proposition for such an excursion, in light of recent events. Back when the peace and commerce treaties between Rome and the Iranian Empire had not yet taken a final shape, military confrontations still occurred between the Persian-Parthian military contingents stationed at the western border of the empire and the legions assigned to the neighboring Roman province of Syria. One such confrontation had been delayed by means of foregoing negotiations and then averted altogether when Maniya discovered that the Legatus in charge was someone she was acquainted with, a Roman who had actually saved her life. (Legatus Titus Flavius Virilus) It happened years before, in Britannia, when she was a young woman in her early twenties, travelling the world alone so as to explore it with the eyes of a common individual. There she was mistaken for a Britton rebel, with whom she had sought shelter, and crucified together with all the rebels who had been caught. Titus Flavius Virilus, then a Centurion in rank, took notice of the peculiar looking boy with messy short hair and realized it was in fact a girl. She convinced him that she was not a Britton by addressing him in Greek after she realized that some Britton rebels were also familiar with the Latin tongue. After she was taken down from the cross, barely alive and with severe injuries for which she would find a cure much later and at opposite ends of the known world from where they stood, Maniya was left in the care of some Roman-friendly locals, while Virilus had to move forth and see to his own duties. When Maniya and Virilus became reacquainted, they developed their bond into a lucrative relationship that became the starting point of military collaborations between the two opposing forces. Their combined efforts helped settle the major disputes between the Iranian-friendly and Roman-friendly people of the region, ensuring as much stability as possible. The fruitful outcome of their actions was seen by both Roman and Iranian officials as a solid foundation on which a stable alliance could be built. The final treaty outlining this collaboration was to be signed in Rome, by Maniya, on behalf of the Iranian nation. She had been authorized by the King of Kings and the Royal Council to act as representative and had with her the royal seal. Although the greatest part of the treaty presented the details of joint military engagements, its main purpose was in fact the securing of trade routes and commercial activities carried out between the two nations and their common allies. Military action was one of the means that contributed to the achievement of such end. The Iranian delegation headed by Maniya set on a sea voyage towards Italia, departing from the eastern shores of the Middle Sea, travelling together with Legatus Virilus and a small contingent of soldiers who accompanied him to Rome. The Legatus too, left the eastern lands only temporarily, to assist in the discussions prior to the signing of the treaty, as well as to regroup some of his most trusted soldiers who had served with him in Britannia. Together with Maniya and her entourage, he would then return with the additional unit to supplement the legion left in Syria and also in the company of the new Governor of Syria, bound to replace the one in office, whose proconsulship was at an end. In Italia their vessels docked at Brundisium, a major center of Roman naval power and maritime trade, as well as the chief point of embarkation for Greece and the East. (The Via Appia - white) From there, the convoy comprising of horse-riders, marching soldiers and baggage carts made its way along the Via Appia and only made a one day stop at the family villa outside Capua, inherited by Titus Virilus. Although they had strived to keep a low profile during their march, Magistrate Sextus of Capua had gotten word of their arrival and on the very same day he and his personal escort went to greet the illustrious visitors at the Virilus Villa. His enthusiasm was not met by an equal response as the master of the house, Legatus Virilus, politely but rapidly sent him on his way, telling him that they were in a hurry to march on towards Rome. He did however had to promise the Magistrate that he and the foreign guests, together with the future Governor of Syria, would attend the celebrations that Sextus was eager to organize in their honour. The political prospects the magistrate would be exposed to while mingling with the aristocratic elite partaking in such a gathering were practically boundless. Virilus was well aware of these well-known interests of politicians that were never among his interests, since he had always been a man of war. As such, he dismissed the man with a mildly obscured ironic grin and more or less closed the door in his face. Two weeks later, when they returned from Rome, it so happened that the eager Magistrate was once again there to greet them, this time having arrived at the Legatus' villa well in advance of the property's master himself. Unfortunately for Magistrate Sextus, his enthusiasm was once again dampened by the same ever changing whims of politics that he also sought to embrace more tightly. The future Governor of Syria had not returned with the delegation all the way to Capua. Not too far from the premises of the city he and his own escort had broken away from the convoy with whom he had travelled from Rome and took the road to Neapolis. There he had to attend legal and military matters concerning the legions that either returned from or set sail towards the western territories of the Republic. Further on he was to travel to the city of Baiae, a fashionable Roman seaside resort west of Neapolis and one of the most famous gathering places of the ultra-wealthy aristocrats of the Republic. The city was also notorious for the hedonistic temptations on offer and for rumours of scandal and corruption. Such was the double nature of the aristocracy, though not at all different from aristocracies of other nations: due to their high status they could discreetly engage in all the deeds and pleasures they themselves deemed immoral and punishable before the public they had to control, while very few dared to cast any accusations upon them, even with proof. Nonetheless, Roman learned men, some of whom genuinely adhered to the concept and deeds considered to be moral and decent within Roman society, described the city of Baiae in their writings or orations as being a "vortex of luxury", a "harbor of vice" or a "den of licentiousness and vice". What had made Baiae such a famed resort for the wealthy, aside from its beautiful scenery and the elaborate, luxurious villas like no other in the Republic, built on the very coast and offering a superb view of the sea-side, were the topographical wonders of the city. Baiae was host to an important region for thermo-mineral bathing. Roman engineers had constructed a complex system of chambers that channeled heat beneath the land's surface into bathing facilities that acted as saunas. The baths were used not only for relaxation purposes, but often also as medicinal remedies for various illnesses. The future governor undoubtedly wanted to enjoy such delights once more before he would have to depart from his homeland but most certainly the purpose of his visit had more to do with the men of power he would encounter there, or possibly had set up a meeting there in advance. Either way, because of his political standing no one beneath him in title could question him on his motives and when asking the governor concerning the date of his return, the party who had to wait for him in Capua had no choice but to accept his response along the lines of 'When I return you will see that I have returned'. Magistrate Sextus was the only one who found some joy in the news, hoping he would at least be able to meet the Consul and future Governor in person, upon his arrival, although the man had also instructed Legatus Virilus to be ready to depart immediately after his return. Taking into account the days to be spent on the road and speculating on the affairs the Consul would be attending to, the conclusion was that up to a week would pass before his return. As much as she longed for home, Maniya was not displeased by the news. She would have loved to visit the city of Baiae as well and enjoy its delights but with circumstances being as they were, she had to settle with Capua that also had much to offer, despite lacking the wonders of Baiae. Capua was after all considered to be the second city of Italia, after Rome itself and was famous throughout the Republic and beyond for its bronze artifacts and exquisite perfumes. Maniya was also keen on exploring the city's cultural heritage but the Magistrate's offer, aside from the banquet at his villa to which he promptly invited them before they barely had time to dismount, comprised of a festival of games, organized in their honour, at the newly constructed Games Arena of Capua. These games that so many thrill-seeking Romans were so eager to attend comprised of none other than the renowned gladiatorial matches where slaves of the Republic and on occasions volunteering freedmen or even citizens, fought for coins and for the lives. Maniya was by no means thrilled to see such grotesque displays as she strove to discourage violence and do as much as possible to reduce and if possible, abolish slavery in her homeland, where the notion had far less gruesome connotations than in the west. In the Persian-Parthian Empire slaves were mostly prisoners of war or citizens in debt but their treatment as slaves and the work they did was similar to that of a free citizen employed as a servant. Slaves also received payment for their work, although inferior to that received by a free servant and they could buy their freedom if they were able to raise the needed sum. The life of a slave was by no means pleasant there either, but it was considerably safer and slaves being used as sexual objects occurred only rarely. This was also due to the fact that over there a man could legally have more than one wife at the same time as well as publicly recognized mistresses and in some regions women could also have, legally, more than one husband at the same time. Since she wanted to keep a low profile, upon their arrival Maniya and her entourage, together with the Romans who had returned with them from Rome, bound also to sail towards the east, rode directly to the stables and had yet to meet Magistrate Sextus face to face. Virilus had been the one who conversed with him each time, as was appropriate since he was the master of the villa. After having settled into the chambers they occupied during their stay at the villa, Maniya was informed that the Magistrate, together with his wife and a few more members of his escort were still in the main reception hall, awaiting to greet the foreign guests in person and offer some welcoming gifts they had brought. Seeing that the meeting was impossible to avoid, Maniya went to greet the guests but without making a grand entrance. She approached quietly, from a lateral corridor and without the company of any attendant. (Magistrate Sextus and wife, Aemilia) Magistrate Sextus and his wife, Aemilia, were both sited on a comfortable sofa, conversing and sipping the wine they had been served. Appius, the man who had been administering the Virilus villa for years, in the absence of its master whose military duties kept him away from home, had just parted with the couple with the promise that he would inform the foreign guest of their expecting visitors. 'Your excitement is rather exaggerated, don't you think?' Aemilia whispered to her husband through somewhat gritted teeth that were sustaining a forced smile, just in case. 'The Consul has yet to arrive and until then we must spend coin to entertain these... foreigners, and with what benefit to us?' she concluded with a rather smug grimace. 'I have told you, once cannot expect to gain coin without spending coin first, and unless you want to find the quality markets empty of fine silks and rare jewels, you'd do best to aid in keeping the stream flowing,' the husband instructed. 'And how precisely am I to do that?' the sneering wife retorted. 'By smiling and being a good host. We must make good impression and with that rewards will surely follow. Gifts of their own perhaps, to us, a good word to the Consul and even an invitation maybe, who known,' the Magistrate spoke with revived enthusiasm. 'A visit? Where? To them, in their land?'Aemilia scoffed. 'It is said to be a place of magnificent wealth and unimaginable splendors,' the Magistrate continued with the same enthusiasm. 'Have you not paid attention at the games to how that lanista of lesser note, Vibius I believe, described the place? Some wealth, indeed, but mostly ghastly and with odd people of questionable intent. He should know, his ludus is there and he practically lives there for over six month each year,' Aemilia rapidly replied, showing even more self-content upon expressing the unique knowledge she thought she possessed. 'The ludus of Vibius is in Damascus, in Syria, a different place altogether,' her husband calmly corrected her. 'He says there is nothing but arid land and deserts stretching further east. Is that where this fantastic land of fabulous wealth is supposed to be?' she inquired ironically, once more. 'Merchants and other travelers who ventured there, even scholars of Rome, describe it as such,' replied Sextus. 'So are they supposed to be Syrians of superior quality to those the Republic has subdued?' Aemilia questioned further, never losing the irony in her tone. 'From what I have heard and seen the notion proves difficult to be assumed as truth.' At this point in their conversation Maniya decided to intervene and make her presence known. She had quietly amused herself with the couple's discourse but eventually grew tired of listening to it from the shadows. 'Those you generally call Syrian are nowadays mostly a mixture of Greeks and Arabs. We are Iranian, a different nation in its entirety.' With this unexpected intervention Maniya almost startled the couple whose attention was focused in a different direction, from where they expected the foreigners to appear. Magistrate Sextus was the first to stand up, followed by his wife who seemed to rise only because she knew her husband expected her to. 'Greetings!' the Magistrate spoke with a small, symbolic bowing of his head, a more polite tilt to be precise. 'We were merely speculating, hoping to learn more from our esteemed guests themselves. I assume correctly that you yourself are with the delegation?' He assumed that by the robes she wore, which were evidently not of Roman fashion and neither what he would have expected a woman to wear. Maniya was dressed in a knee-long, black coat of sorts, with long, loose sleeves and golden embroideries along the edges of the sleeves, around the neckline and in a vertical line on the front, on either sides of the buttons that closed the coat. The coat was also tied around the middle by a golden-coloured sash and underneath she wore black trousers and knee-high leather boots. She wore no jewelry aside from a ring on her right hand that bore the insignia of the dynasty she belonged to. But what surprised both Sextus and Aemilia was that the foreign woman looked nothing like they had envisaged. In fact, if dressed in Roman clothing anyone seeing her would assume she was a Roman-born citizen. 'I am. The men and our attendants will join us momentarily,' Maniya replied. 'Splendid!' the Magistrate exclaimed. 'I am looking forward to meeting the honorable Mahtab who has fought alongside our brave Legatus Titus Flavius Virilus to vanquish the enemies that threatened both our nations.' 'It is an honor to meet you as well. I am Mahtab of the House Kurush-Hakhāmanish. Mahtab is a woman's name,' Maniya informed the Magistrate with a mild smirk masked into a polite smile and extended her hand in greeting. 'Ah... apologies, I did not know,' the Magistrate was so taken aback by the revelation that he failed to find the proper words with ease. 'I am Sextus, Magistrate of Capua,' he introduced himself and since the gesture of receiving an extended hand in greeting, as if from a man, confused him, Sextus courteously took her hand in his and kissed it. 'My wife, Aemilia,' he then introduced her as well, with a glance in her direction. 'It is a pleasure to meet you,' she responded on a much tempered voice and with a forced smile to mask her perplexed reaction to what she had learned while watching the conversation unfold. Maniya greeted her with a symbolic bow of her head and a smile. | ~* STARTER 2 The Persian Empire - the City of Alamut 1 week after the Persian invasion of Alamut Following the complicated affair regarding the wrongful invasion of the Holy City of Alamut, and the sudden marriage proposition made by Prince Tus in sign of reconciliation, Princess Tamina requested time to consider the proposition. For the sake of maintaining a peaceful relationship between the two nations, no one on the Persian side could request a quicker reply and risk spoiling the opportunity of subtly bringing Alamut under their sphere of influence and control, without any bloodshed. In the meantime, the King of Kings himself, King Sharaman, had arrived in the Holy City and the princess had several diplomatic encounters with him, expressing her desire of ensuring the safety and prosperity of her people in the new circumstances that would arise following her alliance through marriage. King Sharaman assured her that she would retain her sovereign privileges and duties and like any other city-state allied with the Persian Empire, the people of Alamut would go one with their lives as before and the monarch of Alamut would retain the right of governing its people according to their own rules. The only change would be the recognition of King Sharman as their supreme ruler and the payment of the corresponding monthly tribute. Much had changed in Maniya's life as well, unbelievably much to be precise. One week before, just after the invasion, she had snuck inside the city, on her way back from Hindustan, to meet her childhood friends, Dastan and Bis and now she woke in one of the lavishing guest chambers of the royal palace of Alamut, with the two men she loved, Tus and Garsiv, on either side of her. It was not a dream, but the manifestation in reality of a life-long dream. The people of Alamut had a strong belief in destiny and with all the incredible things that had happened since they arrived in the Holy City, Maniya found it difficult to ignore the proclaimed powers of the mysterious deities worshiped in that city. It seemed as if destiny had brought them all to Alamut to finally put their lives in order and end their emotional suffering. With the overwhelming events off the past few days, Maniya had almost forgotten that she was in a foreign city that would get to keep its independent rule although it will be under the Persian sphere of influence. Now that she would openly assume the leading role of House Kurush-Hakhamanish, her adoptive family, and continue being the leader of the people living under the patronage of her house, Maniya would also have to meet with the princess and her advisors, to discuss political, administrative and military issues. She had spent over a year in Hindustan, covertly gathering information on the many dynasties that constantly fought for land, riches and power in that region and that were potential enemies of the Persian Empire, until proven otherwise. Because of the knowledge she now possessed, her advice was crucial in any courses of action the King decided to take in the region and the support of Princess Tamina was just as crucial, since the Alamutians had century-old relations with the people east of the Hindu River. Political issues aside, there were also personal reasons for becoming acquainted with the princess, who would soon become family, the wife of the young adopted prince whom Maniya affectionately called her son, since she had taken care of him and his best friend when she was a young slave girl and the boys homeless orphans. There had been however a slight incident the previous day, a misunderstanding that Maniya hoped would soon be clarified, as soon as she got the chance to talk to the princess. Overwhelmed with joy because everything that had happened, Maniya rushed to share the news with her life-long friend, Dastan. Their encounter was not different from any of the previous ones, Maniya acting as always like both one of the boys and a fun older sister. Still, the princess, who did not know Maniya nor her relationship with Dastan, had undoubtedly drawn a wrong conclusion when she saw her future husband having a joyful time with his arm around the shoulders of a beautiful woman, who in turn had her arm around his middle. Maniya had drawn her own conclusion of what the Princess must have thought when she spotted her looking at them with a stern and slightly ironic look on her face, before turning around abruptly and walking away without another glance in their direction. At the time Maniya, Dastan, Bis and Roham were being shown though some public areas of the palace by a group of enthusiastic young Alamutians who were eager to receive the foreign guests, once the misunderstandings had been cleared and the Persians began to help the Alamutians in repairing the damages they had caused during the invasions. The day ended with a banquet where the princess conversed mostly with King Sharman and Prince Tus and discreetly avoided Dastan, as well as discussions regarding her reply to the marriage proposal. When Maniya arrived later on, together with Garsiv, coming straight from a meeting with the Persian generals, her eyes met Tamina's once more and she saw the same expression on her face. Garsiv and Maniya did not linger much at the banquet and they left as soon as Tus joined them. Maniya had her arm intertwined with that of her husband to be and as they walked away she felt Tus's hand touching her lower back. She did not turn to search for Tamina's expression, in case she still had her eyes on them, but she nonetheless thought with a smile that it might have been amusing. These thoughts returned to her the morning of the following day when a servant brought word from King Sharaman that she was to have an audience with Princess Tamina to discuss the pending political issues while Prince Tus would accompany him to Hindu-Alexandria, the capital-city of the Harauvatish Satrapy, which bordered Hindustan directly and therefore also the city of Alamut. The meeting was necessary in order to avoid any potential internal conflicts that might have arose as a result of the sudden invasion of Alamut, whom the eastern satraps had long wanted to subdue but were always ordered against it by the King of Kings. 'This should be quite interesting,' she exhaled with a snicker once the servant left, leaning back against the cushioned bench she sat on, in between Tus and Garsiv, as the three dined in the balcony of the guest chamber they were occupying. 'My first talk with my future daughter-in-law,' she added with a chuckle before bringing a dark-red, seedless cherry to her lips, which immediately enveloped it and took it in. Garsiv, who sat on her left side, halfway turned towards her and with his right arm outstretched and resting on the back of the couch she leaned against, watched Maniya closely, the corner of his lips curling up into a smirk when the luscious moves of her lips and fingers made him relive in his mind scenes of the previous night. 'Be sure not to be too much of a shrew as a mother-in-law,' he then said with a muffled chuckle. 'I thought you liked me as a shrew,' she retorted on a seductive tone. 'I love you as a shrew,' Garsiv replied while leaning over to kiss her lips quickly but voluptuously. 'But don't scare the princess ... at least until she gives her answer.' 'I could not possibly wish for her answer to be anything but positive, although it worries me that this girl will have Dastan wrapped around her little finger.' 'You will make sure she does not cross any lines, I am certain,' Tus intervened and put his arm around Maniya's waist in a comforting gesture. She turned to glance at him with an ironical grimace. 'That is unless your six wives combined don't drive me insane,' she retorted, referring to the four wives of Tus and the two wives of Garsiv. The two men laughed in unison, each nodding in approval of what Maniya was saying. 'Then we should have Tamina meet Lida. A few hours with her and the princess will be the one driven to madness,' Tus added on a higher and joyful tone, trying to use amusement to help him cope with the thoughts of his difficult third wife, whom he would have to face soon enough, once they returned to Babylon. 'Or secretly plot to have us all killed and drive the empire to ruin,' Garsiv added sarcastically, with a scoffing grimace that he displayed often enough. This time Tus's smile seemed forced and did little to hide his concern. Garsiv might have spoken in jest but they all knew better, given the trouble that Lida had caused ever since she had approached Tus with an alliance though marriage. At this moment they still knew too little about the Princess of Alamut to be certain of what they could expect. Maniya cast a short glance in Garsiv's direction, her own smile also darkened by concern, then turned towards Tus who was visibly affected by the troubling suppositions. She leaned closer to him, putting one arm around his back and caressing his cheek with the other, then giving him a light kiss. 'Joking aside, I promise you no such thing will happen,' she assured him. 'Be wary when you speak to the princess. We cannot know just yet how well we can trust her,' Tus told Maniya on a much more serious tone. 'I always do that and if there are any secrets she is hiding, I will uncover them. Do not trouble your mind with this, focus only on your meeting with the Suren and secure your coronation.' 'If ever there will be one,' Tus turned his gaze from her, scoffing almost in the same manner as Garsiv, though still showing his own, different character. 'Of course there will be.' With her right hand still around his back, Maniya leaned even closer and placed her left hand on his upper chest, massaging him tenderly. 'The King is just overly concerned with everything that is going on throughout the empire. But the west remains the key to your glory. Drive out the Romans as you did before and make sure they don't return, secure the western border with more stationed troops and ensure the allegiance of Armina, undoubtedly wavering now with the death of Pakur. Once the western conflicts are resolved other issues will be much easier to deal with.' 'The people were on our side when we retook Anatolia, Syria and Iudaea. They will join us again if we march in better armed, better organized and in greater numbers,' Garsiv added, leaning into Maniya and reaching with his arm around her back to place his hand on his brother's shoulder. Maniya turned to greet Garsiv's gesture with a smile and removed her hand from Tus's chest to take Garsiv's free hand in hers. 'My heart throbs at seeing you hacking Romans,' she smirked. 'Just your heart?' he smirked back. 'No ...,' Maniya trailed and gazed at him seductively while bringing his hand to her lips, which then lingered on his flesh for a few moments. Simultaneously, Tus placed his own hand on top of Garsiv's, which continued to grasp his shoulder, thus both acknowledging and returning the gesture of support. Afterwards he moved his hand to gently grasp Maniya's chin and turn her gaze towards him, while at the same time slowly leaning forward. 'Then let us be done with this place and go home,' he half-whispered the last few words as his lips met hers, in a tender and lasting kiss. 'I long to return to Babylon,' Maniya whispered back. 'But first we have the Kushan to deal with here.' 'Barbaric cave-dweller, we'll scatter them like weeds,' Garsiv exclaimed with confidence, on his usual high tone, though at the same time he placed a rather tender kiss on Maniya's upper neck, just below her earlobe. Their tender moments lasted only a short while longer, until the servant returned, at King Sharaman's command, to urge Prince Tus to hasten his departure. The three of them left the room together and after escorting Tus to his entourage Garsiv went to find Dastan and Maniya asked one of the Alamutian guards to show her the way to the hall where she was to meet with the Princess. Once there she was told to wait in front of two tall and beautifully engraved but closed doors. It was not a burden however because Maniya soon found herself mesmerized by the carvings that adorned the stone walls. There were also writings among the engravings, the language being that of the land and one of her favorite, Sanskrit. She smiled when she saw her name written on the wall, although it was a mere coincidence, since in Sanskrit it translated as "glass bead". Maniya had known this for a long time and the detail was part of the very complex path that she thought to be her destiny. Noticing this on the wall immediately made her look down to the string of glass beads she wore like a bracelet wrapped around her right hand, the string that Tus had given her years back, when they were young. Her mind kept jumping from one detail to the other and since the glass beads that always made her remember Tus, when they came into view she inevitably started replaying the events of the past few days in her mind, still unable to fully believe that it was all real. | ~* STARTER 3 The Persian Empire - the Makai Desert After marriage, only Maniya's social position and degree of public exposure had changed, while her habits and desires remained the same. Although Maniya had found emotional fulfillment in her new life, marriage also did not ease her responsibilities towards her adoptive family and the people under their patronage, nor did she want them eased. Now more than ever she had every means at her disposal to ensure, among other things, the efficient training of the men who were compelled to come to arms when called by the lords they served, who in turn had sworn their allegiance to the House Kurush-Hakhamanish, Maniya's adoptive family. Other responsibilities included making sure the peace was kept in various regions under her patronage, by the people appointed for these tasks. When needed, she and the soldiers under her direct command, which formed a small army in effect, would march towards the conflict areas and intervene personally to solve them. Such was the case when hordes of bandits, mostly escaped prisoners or vile, lawless criminals who had never been captured, began to rage havoc on the scattered settlements of the southern region of the Maka Satrapy. This region was covered mostly by the Makai (Greek: Gedrosian) Desert, where human settlements could only be built around the few scattered oases. Because of the environment they could not be large or thoroughly defended, making them an easy target for the desert bandits. They even took over some of the smaller settlements that were not near any major travelling routes. The entire satrapy of Maka was in fact a dry, mountainous region and aside from the few larger cities and the dispersed oases, small towns and settlements had been established on the coast as well. In that area, sea-bandits or pirates had also become notorious by frequently attacking trade ships, especially those sailing to or from Hindustan (India). The Makai Desert was one of the largest barren regions of the empire and one of the least populated, as well as one of the most dangerous, primarily because of the harsh environment, and only in smaller proportions because of the bandits. Crossing this desert was a battle in itself and a most arduous one at that, so much so that many brave warriors of the past had made a goal of it, which, if achieved would have been a great victory in itself. The most notable of them had been the legendary Assyrian Queen Shamiram (Greek: Semiramis), King Kurush (Greek: Cyrus), the founder of the First Persian Empire and the most famous Macedonian King, Iskandar (Greek: Alexander), all of them trying to succeed where the other had failed in the past. All three had marched straight into the desert with a large army and barely made it to the other end with only a handful of soldiers. The others, together with the animals and the carts that had to be abandoned, all fell prey to the merciless desert. Since the days of Iskandar, almost three centuries later, significant progress had been made to chart the approximate parameters of the desert and identify the areas that had to be avoided at all costs, together with those that proved to be significantly more hospitable, in comparison. The guides who accompanied Maniya's convoy were also versed in the art of finding their direction by the stars at night and by the sun in day-time, the same as sailors, and did not rely solely on landscape marks that were easily obliterated by the blown and drifting sand. In most areas there was nothing in the vast and featureless desert to determine what course one should take - no trees, as elsewhere, by the roadside, no hills of solid earth rising from the sand. Still, there were ever-present hardships that could not be avoided such as the blazing heat and burning, sun-baked sand. In some areas there were only lofty hills of sand - loose, deep sand, into which one sank as if it were mud or untrodden snow and sources of water, aside from the few known oases, were very scarce. Even with guides, it was still more or less marching into the unknown, especially when it came to finding water sources, which were not permanent. Almost on a constant basis, old water sources dried up and new ones emerged or were formed by streams flowing from the rocky mountains bordering the desert. In the Makai regions, the same as in the neighboring Hindustan, there were certain periods each year when it rained heavily. Rain fell not on the plains but on the mountains and the otherwise small streams could grow into overwhelming torrents able to sweep away everything in their path. Maniya and her troops were actually fortunate to not have been compelled to venture into the desert during such a period, when water in abundance was a curse instead of a blessing. Iskandar himself had met such a misfortune when his camp had been swept away during the night by the powerful torrents of an overflowing stream. In pursuit of the bandits who had now mustered into a small army, though with the expected lack of structure and discipline, Maniya marched her troops along the outer rims of the perilous desert, heeding the instructions of the trained guides. Given the conditions, their own discipline during the march was difficult to maintain but still they went forth, following the trails left by the bandits, as few as there could be in the desert, such as lost object that had not been completely engulfed by the sea of sand. One afternoon, after several days of travel, a scout ridding ahead broke away from the small party he was with and galloped back with speed to deliver urgent news to the commander. 'Mahtab Banu (Lady Mahtab), a small village up ahead, appears to have been sacked not long ago, a few days maybe,' the scout informed, slightly panting, mostly due to the pressing burden of the waves of heat that fell upon them. The blinding sun was almost halfway along its descending course and still it shone as powerfully as it had earlier in the day. 'Any survivors?' Maniya brought her mare to a halt upon noticing the approaching scout and raised her right hand to signal the riders behind her to do the same. 'Unlikely, but we are yet too far to be certain. Anyone who survived the raid had to hide well and they are most certainly still there.' 'Call the others back. We will regroup and advance in formation. We cannot rule out the possibility of this being some sort of trap.' 'Yes, lady,' the man complied with a swift bowing of his head and simultaneously stirred his horse to change course and ride off back from where they had come. 'Tiran�s,' Maniya called her bodyguard who also served as her second-in-command in this expedition. 'Have the archers form a line of three groups in a half circle covering the perimeter around the village from where we stand. We will advance separately through the two openings.' Having advanced with his own mount so as to stand next to Maniya's, the seasoned warrior with the demeanor of an all-knowing hermit, was, as usual, not quick to form words, offering instead a prolonged stare. It was a look resembling those given by masters to students or by parents to children when they expect them to acknowledge their error. Here the problem was not the advance strategy proposed by Maniya but her intention to march alone, of which Tiran�s was certain even if she had not voiced it plainly. She did not have to, he knew her long enough to predict her intentions. 'You disagree?' Maniya questioned following a brief silence whose meaning was not unknown to her, but still she chose to purposely ignore it. 'Only with your intention of having me lead the other group instead of riding by your side.' 'We cannot keep arguing about this. If I appoint you for something important it is because I trust you above all others.' 'The only thing important to me is your safety,' Tiran�s responded with the severity of a dutiful protector. 'I swore to you and your honorable mother to always defend your life with my own if needed and now I also swore it to the King of Kings himself. Such an oath, I cannot break.' Uncustomary for Maniya, her silent reply was one of compliance. A small smile spread her lips when King Sharaman was mentioned, her husband's father. The notion of having a husband was still new to her, especially since he was the man she thought she could never have, and she often found herself in need of being reminded that her life was now completely different, though apparently the same. The difference lay only in her emotions and the way she perceived her purpose in life. In the past her own survival held little meaning, only achieving the goal mattered and now, as strange as it may sound, she had to learn what it meant to care for herself, how to achieve a goal without sacrificing her life in the process. 'I understand. This is still new to me.' The smiled lingered on her lips and following a short glance in the distance ahead, she scanned the mounted men behind from the corner of her eye before returning her attention to Tiran�s. 'Have Arash lead the second advance party then.' With Tiran�s ridding beside her, Maniya led one of the advance parties, simultaneously with that led by Arash, down the mildly steep sand and rock walls of the small valley, home to the ravaged village. In those lands, what was commonly referred to as village were in fact tent settlements raised along oases. Most communities were of pastoral nomads, sometimes also mixed with tribes of hunters. The village stood desert and even the remains of tents were torn and scattered. Desert winds had already set a thick blanket of bright-yellow sand over the remains, yet still proved inefficient in obscuring the most terrible of remains, those that once had life. Had it not been for the layer of sand, the grounds would have been no different than those of a battlefield. There could not have been more than fifty people in the settlement, yet the massacre looked like that of thousands when they were all but piles of butchered corpses, some even with limbs and ruptured flesh or bone far from where their bodies lay. If the pools of blood had been absorbed or partially covered by sand, nothing could mask the horrid stench of rotting flesh, which the heat only made stronger. The sight became clear to Maniya once they had marched halfway towards their destination. At that point she stopped and ordered the other party to do so as well. A soldier behind her, following her command, cried out the order to the group led by Arash. It appeared that the unfortunate souls were denied peace even in death. There was one vicious predator spread over them in great numbers. With another hand signal Maniya had the soldier behind her deliver another order. This time the man raised a flag whose purpose was to have the archers back on the hill take position and stand ready to fire. The soldier with a similar duty in Arash's party did the same and at Maniya's command they signaled the archers to release their arrows. Many of the sharp missiles hit their target, impaling the hungry vultures to the corpses whose flesh they were tearing, while the rest caused the other birds of prey to swarm off in haste. The sight, though now less darkened by the cloud of birds, was in no way more southing. The parties went on further down and stopped just in front of the main scene of the massacre. Here Maniya dismounted and Tiran�s followed. Other soldiers did as well, while the remaining mounted ones were ordered to ride along the edge of the settlement and further scan the surroundings. Once, such a sight would have scarred or shocked Maniya but that was a time long passed. Circumstances had forced her to expect anything at any time and always keep a straight face and a focused mind. As such, upon seeing the bodies up close she only sighed and shook her head before scanning the environment and doing a quick, visual assessment of the former conflict zone. 'Where do you think survivors could have hid to escape this?' she questioned Tiran�s as they both advanced through the corpses, one carefully placed step after another. 'There do not seem to be any such places,' he responded, yet squirted his eyes once more to prevent the wind-blown sand from entering his eyes while attempting to find in the distance areas he might have overlooked. A sand-storm had once again started, mild by comparison to what that desert often gifted its guests with but still dense enough to partially obscure sight from reaching too far into the distance. 'Perhaps over there,' he pointed to a stain of darker colour amidst the sand, far enough from where they stood, among a patch of desert vegetation and a semi-circle of palm-trees on the other side of the pool of now bloodied, water around which the oasis had formed. 'It might be a tent still standing.' 'Let us go see until this sand breeze turns into a full storm. We might as well be forced to take shelter here.' The commander and her bodyguard encircled the water and hurried to investigate the remains of one of the largest tents, some of its vertical supporting beams still standing and holding in place the fabric that served as walls and roof. The curtain which had been a makeshift door looked as if it had been torn from its upper support in a brutish attempt to pull it aside. Only its left corner was still attached and the rest of the worn-out fabric was fluttering in the wind. Maniya left it as it was and only pushed it aside to step inside the tent. 'No bodies,' she commented, somewhat surprised by the clean sight. 'Those who took shelter here were dragged out to be taken or killed in front of the others,' Tiran�s pointed to some randomly thrown or shattered belongings and the remains of jewelry ripped apart, all indicating a struggle. 'Mahtab Banu,' Arash announced his presence when he too stepped inside not long after Maniya and Tiran�s. 'I have retrieved your weapon,' he explained his rather hasty arrival and extended to Maniya the sai he had come across. She was about to question him on the nature of his find when her eyes met a replica of one of the dual impaling weapons she wielded. It was not a common weapon and its discovery spurred her curiosity. 'It is not mine. I have both with me,' she replied, pressing her right hand against the two weapons hanging from a belt by her left hip, in place of a sword. Still, she reached forward and took the weapon from Arash's hands and examined the design of the hilt, different from hers. 'Where did you find this?' 'Impaled in a corpse. It delivered a fatal blow,' Arash formed a new opinion after discovering it was not Maniya's weapon, while before he had been confused to discover her weapon in a long dead body. 'Show me where you found it.' At the place in question nothing else out of the ordinary caught Maniya's eyes, not even the twin of the sai found by Arash. Not willing to give up on discovering the mystery of the one sai, Maniya ordered the two men to look for its pair while she ventured further, driven by an unknown impulse that told her there was more to be found there. Beyond the borders of the oasis, where only two or three solitary corpses lay almost completely covered by the sea of sand, a sudden brightness shone from amidst one of such sandy mounds. Maniya recognized it as the reflection of the sun upon metal, most certainly the polished surface of a weapon. Disregarding the shouts of Tiran�s who urged her not to rush forward into open, empty terrain, Maniya did precisely that and struggled through the treacherous sand as if through tall snow to reach the place from where the light had come. Its source had been indeed a weapon and none other than the twin sai she was searching for. Clutching its hilt, a female hand by the looks of it stretched from beneath a lifeless male body, barely visible from beneath the sand covering it. 'Help me push this body,' she called to Tiran�s, once she saw him approach. When he reached her, Maniya had already brushed off most of the sand on top and began to roll the heavier body off that of the woman beneath. 'There is a woman's body beneath.' 'The sai was hers,' Tiran�s noticed the other sai in the woman's hand. 'Pull the woman from underneath when I lift the body,' he then instructed and Maniya complied. For Tiran�s, lifting the dead body was far from difficult. He could have thrown him aside with one hand but used both so as not to accidentally bring more harm to the woman beneath, in the slim chance that she was still alive. When the body was lifted, Maniya moved to grab the shoulders of the woman lying on her stomach and pull her out. 'A Saka woman?' Tiran�s inquired after having thrown the male body aside. Judging from her yellow hair and her foreign-looking attire, his first assumption was that she might have hailed from a northern steppe tribe, generally referred to as Saka by the Persians and Scythians by the Greeks. 'It would explain the sais, but it is no certainty. The drawing on her back is a motif common in the far east, where the sais also originate. It might be that she visited the same distant lands I have and maybe even beyond,' Maniya reflected upon seeing the large, colourful dragon painted on the woman's back. 'It is not safe to linger here. If you desire it, we can take the body and give at least this woman a proper burial. There is no time for the others.' Maniya then proceeded to inspect her for signs of life and found her breathing, though faintly and with a slow beating of the heart. 'She is alive!' The enthusiastic reaction took her as well by surprise, although it was a natural reaction to have when finding life among so much death. 'We must take her back to the tent. She is between life and death, her wounds have gone untreated for too long.' Aside from the harshness with which the sun had treated her body, leaving burns and even mild blisters, there was also slight bleeding from cuts evidently received in combat, although none too deep. A most severe wound was on the right side of her forehead, from where blood had flowed across the side of her face. Tiran�s understood the order and took the woman in his arms to carry her back to the tent. Maniya had taken the other sai and could not help admiring the twin pair on the way back, glancing from time to time to her hip to compare them with her own. They returned to the tent they visited earlier and placed the injured, unconscious woman on a pile of blankets that served as a bed. 'We will take shelter here for the night and set off early in the morning. The guides say we could reach the canyon by nightfall. Bring the physician from Harauvatish (Greek: Arakhosia) to tend to this woman and have the men dispose of the bodies outside, before the storm gets worse.' The man complied with a nod and left Maniya to tend to the woman before the physician arrived. She placed the blonde woman's sais next to the improvised bed she had been laid on and began to look around the tent for any items that might be of use. To begin with, water was needed and she was fortunate to discover a small waterskin still half full. She used half of what was left to soak a piece of cloth and with it she proceeded to wipe off the dirt and dried blood off the woman's face and arms. Special attention was paid to open wounds, which were carefully cleaned and prepared to be treated with medicine by the physician. It wasn't long before the physician arrived, one of the few women taking part in the expedition. Already informed about her task, the woman only bowed her head to Maniya upon entering and went forth to where she was needed. A boy, her son and apprentice, came after her, carrying the required supplies. 'It will take time for her to awaken, days, maybe weeks. I would have to remain by her side, should there be complications,' the female physician informed Maniya. 'Do so. We will be taking shelter here for the night but tomorrow we move on. Perhaps, by some miracle she will awaken, if not, we will move her with a stretcher or some improvisation.' 'As you command, Mahtab Banu. In the meantime, I shall do my very best to bring forth that miracle,' the spirited woman assured her with a confident smile. 'I have every confidence you will,' Maniya returned her smile, knowing well that the woman's words were not in vain. She had proven her skills many times before. After one more glance at the blonde woman and her sais, Maniya left the tent to go find her mare, Devi. No doubt she had already been taken care by a soldier or another attendant but Maniya preferred to tend to her personally. Devi was not just an animal or nothing more than a means of transportation, she was a longtime companion. While tending to Devi, whom she found near the water, together with the other horses, Maniya was approached by Arash. 'Has something happened?' she inquired. 'Nothing worrisome, Mahtab Banu, but we did find something we thought might interest you. Close to where you found the injured woman there was a dead horse beneath the sand. It might have been hers. The bags strapped to the saddle were full of written scrolls, Greek writing. I had them brought to your tent.' 'Thank you, Arash. Quite an interesting find.' The unexpected announcement came as a pleasant surprise that made Maniya eager to unfold the scrolls and uncover the mysteries. 'It seems we may discover much about my sai-wielding comrade before she even awakens,' she exclaimed with some enthusiasm, turning towards Tiran�s, who was tending his own horse close enough to hear what Arash had said. 'If they're even about her,' he commented plainly. 'They appeared as accounts of journeys, but I did not linger on them to be certain.' 'Now you have made me even more curious,' she replied to Arash's comment with a smile. 'Let us be done here and go uncover these new found mysteries. But, crucial matters first. Arash, once the men have set up camp here make an assessment of where we stand - casualties, wounded, supplies and report back to me by nightfall.' Later in the evening, after a fairly optimistic assessment report presented by Arash, Maniya had freed herself from her light armour and unbraided her long hair to brush off the sand, then sited herself within the larger tent, close to the wounded woman. The recovered parchments were spread around her and Maniya unfolded each in turn to see if they were numbered or if any order for their succession could be established, perhaps after the chronology of the written accounts. However, such an ordering was difficult to establish so Maniya lingered on a parchment that caught her attention due to the mentioning of Hindustan. The following parchment she picked up described, as she had assumed earlier, a journey to the far eastern lands.

Several weeks had passed since the Spring Party which was definitely nothing like she had expected. After having spoken with Koufu, Leia had taken a reprieve from the activities, taking refuge sitting atop her ship and watching the sun set peacefully. She had left not long after, not having said a word to anyone as they all appeared to be caught up in their own festivities which she did not feel like intruding upon. She did, however, sent a holocomm to Droid Lord, thanking him for inviting her and informing her that she would take him up on his offer to stay at the coordinates he had provided for a house. The house felt vaguely familiar, giving Leia goosebumps. In part, it was the pictures Droid and Akasha had shown her, but there was more to it. While the place looked immaculate, she couldn't help but shake like life and death had occurred here. What had happened? Night after night, she was tormented and plagued by nightmares. It would start with some great storm in the distance that always drew nearer, no matter where she went. And the storm brought a tremendous wave; a wave that rose higher and higher before it would come crushing down, washing over and through her. And somewhere in it all, were the twins, untouched and unharmed even as Leia herself perished in the wake of the storm. Each and every night, she would wake gasping for air, drenched in sweat...the remnants of her dream as delicate as cobwebs, quickly fading from her conscious mind. As the unknown haunted her and exhaustion set in, Leia was forced to pack up and leave the house she had once occupied. Remembering her conversation with Koufu, she set a course for Coruscant to better acquaint herself with one of the few that remained of her lineage. Taking up residence in one of the Temple's guest suites, the former Princess of Alderaan set about sending a message to Koufu. Koufu, I hope that in the weeks since the Party you have kept well. The twins and I have taken up a temporary residence on Coruscant and I would like to keep my word. If you are still interested in and wish to become better acquainted, you need only think of me. May the Force be with you.Leia Retiring for the night, she promptly had a deep and restful sleep, undisturbed by storms, waves, and death.

1. I am not Jason David Frank nor do I claim to be. Like you all I am a roleplayer.2. No godmodding, autoing, or controlling my character. I dislike godmodding as much as anyone else. I would never control yourcharacter, so I would personally like to have be shown the same courtesy I give to you. 3. If Tommy is in a relationship, then he will not cheat. That's a promise. I won't cheat on the person I have an rp relationship with, because my Tommy is a very committed person.4. I have many pages, so I'm always bouncing on or off. So if you expect a reply, be patient, eventually I will get back to you. If you wish to discuss storylines/or connection, I'd be happy to comply. 5. Please don't attempt to kill off my character without my consent. If you do that, rest assured you will be deleted off my list. If you wish to try and kill off my character, we can discuss that in a message and see if we can cross that bridge. 6. Out of Character Drama is absolutely discouraged. If you cause drama, curse at someone or at my friends, you're off my page. If all you wanna do is whine and cuss, do it somewhere else. I don't tolerate fighting/conflict. RP drama is all good though. 7. I am fine with either para/multa roleplaying, and accept one-liners. I only require literacy. I don't wanna see someone using text talk. It's just kind of crazy. Novella is, however, something I cannot do. 8. I play any type of Tommy, whether it be from the MMPR era, The Zeo Era, early Turbo era, or the DT era. 9. Hope we all have fun roleplaying.

1. I am not Jason Lee Scott, or the actor that acted as Jason in the show. I am merely the rper who rps as Jason, and Jason's copyrights and such belongs to the creators of Power Rangers.2. The rping length that I do is from para to multi-para. One-liners are fine, as long as they are interesting and worth replying back. Novella are something that I can't do, due to amount of time and writing a lot of paragraphs. 3. The whole 'you add, you talk' rule is something that I won't do. So, with that being said, I don't care who send the first message/comment, as long as we talk, I am fine with that, regardless of who add the other.4. Rp relationships are meant to stay in Rp  I don't want anyone start taking it serious and think that we are a couple in real life. I had to deal with that in the past, and I don't want to deal with that now.5. Drama are best meant to be left alone. In other words, unless you are one of my closest friends on here, or someone that I trust, don't tell me what your drama of the week/day/month.  I don't bring my dramas to strangers, and I expect those that I don't know to do the same.6. My rule about grammar is about the same as everyone else. I am not some grammar nazi that I want everyone to make their grammar prefect, but I do want to understand what you are talking about, as I try to improve my grammar as well.I will update my rules later.

The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 160,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two years. The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate, and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are subject to term limits. Senators are limited to two four-year terms, and representatives to four two-year terms; a total of 8 years for members of both houses. The General Assembly meets at the State Capitol in Jefferson City. Qualifications Members of the House of Representatives must be 24 years of age to be elected. Representatives also must be a qualified Missouri voter for two years, and a resident of the county or district of their constituency for one year. Senators must be 30 years of age, a qualified Missouri voter for three years, and similar to House qualifications, must be a resident of their senatorial constituency for one year prior to their election. Sessions and quorum According to Article III, Section 20 of the Missouri Constitution, the General Assembly must convene on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January following the state general election. The General Assembly may provide by law for the introduction of bills during the period between the first day of December and the first Wednesday after the first Monday of January. Regular sessions continue until the legislature's adjournment at midnight on May 30. Neither the House nor Senate, without the consent of the other chamber, adjourn for more than ten days at any one time, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses may be sitting. As a part-time legislature, compensation is low with the General Assembly, and most senators and representatives hold jobs outside their legislative duties. Law makers are paid $31,351 per legislative year.

Rule 91. Every senator who is within the bar of the senate when a question is put shall assume his or her seat, and shall vote when his or her name is called unless the senate, for special reasons, excuses him or her. All motions to excuse a senator from voting shall be made before the senate divides, or before the call for yeas and nays is commenced. In taking the yeas and nays, each senator shall declare distinctly his or her vote yea or nay. In the event a senator within the chamber refuses to cast his or her vote, then, at the direction of the president, he or she shall be removed from the chamber and such action noted in the Journal. Rule 92. When a question has once been decided by a vote of the senate, any senator voting on that side which prevails may move for a reconsideration of the vote at any time within three legislative days, excluding legislative days wherein the roll is not called, after the day on which the vote was had, except votes ordering bills printed as perfected, which may be reconsidered at any time before third reading of such bills. When a motion is made to reconsider the vote by which a bill failed of perfection, the presiding officer shall briefly state the nature of the bill and, thereupon, the vote on the motion to reconsider shall be immediately taken without interrogation or debate. All motions to reconsider shall be decided by a majority vote of the senators elected. Only one motion to reconsider shall be allowed on any question. Rule 93. Any senator voting in the minority on any subject, and protesting against the vote of the senate, may have his or her protest entered on the Journal, if the tenor and language of the protest would have been admissible in the discussion of the subject. Miscellaneous Rule 94. No person except members of the house of representatives, fomer members of the senate, the governor, the secretary of state, the state auditor, the state treasurer, judges of the supreme court, courts of appeals or circuit courts, attorney general and the congress, shall be admitted within the senate chamber during the sitting of the senate, unless invited by the senate; except that the seats at the north and south ends of the senate chamber may be reserved for spouses and families of members of the senate, and other persons may be admitted to the senate chamber on special request of any senator when the senate is in session. Access to the third floor rear gallery shall be limited to senators during the hours in which the senate is engaged in floor session. Any use of the gallery when the senate is not in session must be approved by the Chairman of the Committee on Administration. Rule 95. No senator shall absent himself or herself from the session of the senate unless he or she has leave or is sick or unable to attend. A member who is absent from the chamber for attendance at a standing committee meeting, or a conference committee meeting shall be shown as absent with leave (committee). It shall be the responsibility of the member to advise the secretary of the senate of his or her attendance at such committee meeting. Rule 96. 1. Laptop computers may be used by the press at the press table and by the research staff at the research table in the Senate Chamber as long as their use does not violate Rule 78 or is otherwise disruptive to the business of the Senate. No person shall take any photograph in the Senate Gallery. Persons with cameras, flash cameras, lights, or other paraphernalia may be allowed to use such devices at committee meetings with the permission of the Chairman as long as they do not prove disruptive to the decorum of the committee. Smoking is not permissible in the Senate Chamber or Gallery, the Kirchoff Gallery, the Pershing Gallery, the Bingham Gallery, committee rooms, lounge, the hallways, restrooms or elevators. 2. For the purpose of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the President Pro Tem may designate a portion of the Senate Chamber as handicap accessible and such areas shall not be considered a part of the floor of the Senate for the purposes of section 21.420, RSMo. Persons using such area shall not lobby members of the Senate while going to and from or while using the designated area. Rule 97. In cases not provided for in these rules, the senate shall be governed by the rules laid down in the practice and procedures adopted by the Senate of the United States and Jefferson's Manual, including the U.S. Senate practice that a substitute amendment to a first degree amendment is subject to a second degree perfecting amendment. Rule 98. No standing rule or order of the senate shall be rescinded or changed without one day's notice being given of the motion thereof, which notice shall be printed in the journal of the senate, and then only by a vote of at least a majority of the senators elected; except that any rule, including this rule, may be suspended for a special purpose, stated in the motion to suspend, by a vote of a two-thirds majority of the members elected to the senate, and such rule shall remain suspended only until the senate proceeds to the consideration of business other than that for which the rule was suspended. Upon one day's notice of the proposed rule change having been given, the senate resolution adopting such rule change shall not be assigned to a committee without consent of the sponsoring senator and shall be in order to be considered by the senate at any day or time thereafter upon motion of the sponsor during the order of business of Resolutions. Rule 99. No senator shall be permitted to interrupt a roll call and no senator shall be allowed to change his or her vote after a verification is requested by any senator, or after the final vote is announced. When verification is requested, any senator within the chamber who has not voted shall vote prior to the verification of the roll. Rule 100. A roll call vote of the senate shall be taken upon any question at the request of five senators. Rule 101. All senate committees shall meet on call of the chairman and the regular meetings of the committees shall be held at the times and places designated by the Committee on Administration. Rule 102. Public introduction of guests shall not be allowed in the Senate Chamber during the last ten calendar days of the session. At other times, the introduction of guests shall be the order of business at the beginning of each daily meeting of the Senate and immediately prior to daily adjournment.

Senate Rules Time of Meeting and Procedure Rule 1. The time of meeting by the senate, unless otherwise ordered, shall be 10:00 o'clock. Rule 2. The president shall take the chair every day at the hour to which the senate has previously adjourned and shall call the senate to order, and after prayer by the chaplain, shall cause the journal of the preceding day to be read unless dispensed with by consent of the senate. Every person within the senate chamber shall remain standing during the prayer of the chaplain. Order of Business and Procedure Thereunder Rule 3. The business of the senate shall be disposed of in the following order: 1. Reading Journal. 2. Introduction of guests. 3. Petitions, memorials and remonstrances. 4. Resolutions. 5. Concurrent Resolutions. 6. Introduction of bills. 7. Reports of standing committees. 8. Reports of select committees. 9. Second reading of Senate bills. 10. Messages from House. 11. First reading of House bills. 12. House bills on second reading. 13. Third reading of Senate bills. 14. Bills, reports and other bills on the table, including bills for perfection. 15. House bills on third reading. 16. Order of the day. 17. Introduction of guests. 18. Announcement of committee meetings, etc. Rule 4. The president shall, on each day, announce the business in order agreeable to the preceding rule and no business shall be taken up or considered until the class to which it belongs is declared in order, but communications from the governor and reports from the Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions, and Ethics may be received at any time. Rule 5. The secretary, at the close of each day, shall prepare a journal setting forth the actions of the senate in the order in which they occur, record the yeas and nays on any question, and deliver them to the senate before its next meeting. Rule 6. Upon the written request of the sponsor or floor handler of a bill, the committee on rules, joint rules, resolutions, and ethics may recommend that any such bill on the calendars for perfection or house bills on third reading be called up or considered out of order in which the bill appears on that calendar. A recommendation to consider bills out of order shall require approval by a majority of the committee on rules, joint rules, resolutions, and ethics with the concurrence of two-thirds of the senate members. No floor debate shall be allowed on the motion to adopt the committee report. Except as otherwise provided for in this paragraph, only the regular appropriation bills, including the deficiency and the omnibus bills, bills providing for legislative or congressional redistricting, bills producing more than three million dollars in additional state revenue, bills implementing amendments to the Missouri Constitution which were adopted at the immediately preceding state primary or general election, and bills requiring passage in order that the state receive funds from the federal government for the institution, continuance or expansion of federal-state programs, may be called up or considered out of the order in which the bill appears on the formal calendar of the senate. All bills reported to the senate floor by the Committee on Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight shall be placed on the appropriate formal calendar in a position, as near as may be, to that position which the bill would have had absent referral to the Committee on Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight. Call of the Senate Rule 7. Upon the call of the senate, or upon taking the yeas and nays on any question, the names of the senators shall be called alphabetically, and a senator within the chamber shall vote when his or her name is called. No senator shall be allowed to cast or change his or her vote after yeas and nays have been announced by the president. In the event a senator within the chamber refuses to cast his or her vote, then at the direction of the president he or she shall be removed from the chamber and such action noted in the journal. Rule 8. Upon the call of the senate, the names of the senators shall be called by the secretary and the absentees noted, after which the names of the absentees may again be called. Those absent senators from whom no sufficient excuses are made may, by order of a majority of those present, if ten in number, be taken into custody as they appear, or be sent for and taken into custody wherever found by the sergeant-at-arms, or other person appointed by the senate for that purpose, at the expense of such absent senators or senator, respectively, unless such excuse for nonattendance shall be made as the senate, when a quorum is convened, shall judge sufficient. Powers and Duties of the Officers of the Senate Rule 9. The lieutenant governor shall be ex officio president of the senate. In committee of the whole, he may debate all questions, and shall cast the deciding vote on equal division in the senate and on joint vote of both houses. (Constitution Art. IV, Sec. 10.) Rule 10. The president pro tem shall be parliamentarian of the senate and may decide all points of order, and in his absence such points of order may be decided by the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence, except in either case, the point of order may be referred by the then acting parliamentarian, to the Committee on Parliamentary Procedure for consideration and determination. All rulings on points of order shall be subject to an appeal to the senate and all questions and points of order shall be noted by the secretary with the decision thereon. (See also Rule 27.) Rule 11. Questions shall be distinctly put in this form: "As many as are of the opinion that (as the question may be) say 'aye'", and after the affirmative vote is expressed: "Those of the contrary, say 'no'". If the chair doubts or division is called for by two or more senators, the senate shall divide. Those in the affirmative on the question shall first rise from their seats, and afterwards those in the negative. Rule 12. All committees listed in Rule 25 shall be appointed by the president pro tem of the senate, except as otherwise provided. The minority party members shall be chosen by the minority party in the manner determined by the minority party caucus. At the beginning of each session the caucus chairman of the minority party may file with the secretary of the senate a statement setting forth the method by which minority party members are to be appointed as determined by the minority party caucus, but if no such statement is filed, the minority party members shall be appointed to committees by the minority floor leader. Rule 13. The president pro tem shall be chosen by the senate, and if the president pro tem so chosen is absent, or his office vacant, the senate may proceed to elect an interim president pro tem to hold the office during such absence or other incapacity, at the pleasure of the senate. Rule 14. The president pro tem shall sign all acts, joint resolutions and addresses. All writs, warrants and subpoenas issued by order of the senate shall be under his or her hand attested by the secretary. Rule 15. In case of disturbance or disorderly conduct in the lobby or galleries, the president has the power to order the same cleared; and has general control of the senate chamber, unless otherwise ordered. Rule 16. Stenographers and reporters wishing to take down the debates and proceedings of the senate may be admitted by the president pro tem to the reporters' table on the floor of the senate for that purpose, and under such further regulations as the senate may prescribe, but no persons, including members of the senate, other than members of the press, shall be permitted to sit at the press table while the senate is in session. Rule 17. Subject to the unanimous approval of the president pro tem and the majority and minority floor leaders as to time and duration, live or taped news media broadcasts of sessions of the senate may be made by broadcast media representatives. Reporters and technicians to effectuate such broadcasts or taping may be admitted to the chamber for this purpose, but no apparatus or procedure shall be used which will interfere with the usual procedure of the senate. All recording or broadcasting shall be done from areas reserved or set aside for such activities by news media representatives by the president pro tem. Rule 18. It is the duty of the secretary to keep an exact Journal of the proceedings of the senate and he shall, from time to time, be subject to further orders as the senate may direct. It shall be sufficient in recording action on bills by the senate for the Journal to refer to them by number only, except when the bills are presented for the first time, or when final action is taken on third reading, in which case the title shall be set out in full. Rule 19. When a bill or joint resolution passes it shall be certified by the secretary, noting the day of its passage. Rule 20. When a motion is made for an amendment to any bill or resolution, the mover's name shall be inserted in the Journal. Rule 21. The secretary shall see that all amendments and substitutes are incorporated in any bill amended or substituted for when printed as perfected or truly agreed to, and shall perform such other duties as may be required by the Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions, and Ethics. Rule 22. It is the duty of the sergeant-at-arms to attend the senate during its sittings, to keep order in the lobby, to require all persons therein to be seated, and to execute the commands of the senate and the orders of the president, together with all such process issued by authority thereof as shall be directed to him by the president, and he shall, five minutes before the opening of each session, clear the floor of the senate chamber of all persons not entitled to the privilege of the floor, and he shall at all times keep all persons from using or occupying the seats or desks furnished for the use of the members of the senate. Rule 23. The senate chamber shall not be used during any session by any committee or committees or gathering of any kind unless the unanimous consent of the members has first been obtained. Rule 24. It is the duty of the doorkeeper to obey the orders of the senate and its presiding officer. Rule 25. The president pro tem of the senate shall appoint the following standing committees: 1. Committee on Administration, 5 members. 2. Committee on Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources, 7 members. 3. Committee on Appropriations, 9 members. 4. Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment, 9 members. 5. Committee on Education, 9 members. 6. Committee on Financial and Governmental Organizations and Elections, 9 members. 7. Committee on General Laws, 9 members. 8. Committee on Governmental Accountability, 5 members. 9. Committee on Gubernatorial Appointments, 9 members. 10. Committee on Health, Mental Health, Seniors and Families, 7 members. 11. Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government, 9 members. 12. Committee on the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence, 7 members. 13. Committee on Progress and Development, 5 members. 14. Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics, 7 members. 15. Committee on Small Business, Insurance and Industry, 7 members. 16. Committee on Transportation, 9 members. 17. Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Emerging Issues, Pensions and Urban Affairs, 7 members. 18. Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight, 5 members. All committees shall have leave to report at any time. The chairman of any standing committee may appoint one or more subcommittees, with the approval of the committee, to hold hearings on bills referred to the committee and shall report its findings to the standing committee. Rule 26. The membership of all standing committees and of all other committees and commissions, unless otherwise provided by the act or resolution creating them, shall be composed, as nearly as may be, of majority and minority party members in the same proportion as the number of majority and minority party members in the senate bears to the total membership of the senate. The president pro tem, the majority floor leader, and the minority floor leader shall be ex-officio members of all standing and statutory committees of the senate for the purpose of a quorum and discussion but shall have no vote unless they are duly appointed members of such committee. Rule 27. The Committee on Parliamentary Procedure shall be composed of three members: the president pro tem, the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence, and the minority floor leader. Duties of the Committees Rule 28. The duties of the standing committees of the senate are as follows: 1. The Committee on Administration shall superintend and have sole and complete control of all financial obligations and business affairs of the senate, the assignment of offices and seats, and the supervision of certain designated employees. The committee shall be authorized to employ an administrator, who shall be provided with office space as designated by the committee. The administrator or the secretary of the senate may be authorized to act for the committee, but only in the manner and to the extent as may have previously been authorized by the committee with such authorization entered in the minutes of the committee. No voucher calling for payment from the contingent fund of the senate shall be drawn, nor shall any valid obligation exist against the contingent fund until the same shall have been approved by the committee or its administrator and be recorded in the minutes thereof. All vouchers must be signed by the chairman of the committee or the administrator, if so authorized. The committee or its administrator shall provide for the receiving and receipt of all supplies, equipment and furnishings purchased for the account of the senate, and the distribution thereof. The administrator shall keep a detailed running account of all transactions and shall open his records for inspection to any senator who so requests. All employees other than elected officials of the senate and employees of the individual senators, shall be selected by the committee, who shall control their tenure, set their compensation, assign their duties and exercise complete supervision over them. When necessary, the committee shall assign office space and seats in the senate chamber. 2. The Committee on Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to animals, animal disease, pest control, agriculture, food production, the state park system, conservation of the state's natural resources, soil and water, wildlife and game refuges. 3. The Committee on Appropriations shall consider and report upon all bills and matters referred to it pertaining to general appropriations and disbursement of public money. 4. The Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to the development of state commerce, the commercial sector, consumer protection, telecommunications and cable issues, the development and conservation of energy resources and the disposal of solid, hazardous and nuclear wastes and other matters relating to environmental preservation. 5. The Committee on Education shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to education in the state, including the public schools, libraries, programs and institutions of higher learning. 6. The Committee on Financial and Governmental Organizations and Elections shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to banks and banking, savings and loan associations and other financial institutions in the state. The committee shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to the reorganization, establishment, consolidation or abolition of departments, boards, bureaus and commissions of state government, the internal operation of any state agency and the effect of federal legislation upon any state agency. The committee shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to election law. 7. The Committee on General Laws shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to general topics. 8. The Committee on Governmental Accountability shall review, study, and investigate all matters referred to it relating to the application, administration, execution, and effectiveness of all state laws and programs, the organization and operation of state agencies and other entities having responsibility for the administration and execution of state laws and programs, and any conditions or circumstances that may indicate the necessity or desirability of enacting new or additional legislation to improve the efficiency of any state law or program. Any findings of the committee may be reported to the senate and the Committee on Appropriations. The committee shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to improving governmental efficiency and management. 9. The Committee on Gubernatorial Appointments shall consider and report upon gubernatorial appointments referred to it. 10. The Committee on Health, Mental Health, Seniors and Families shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning health, MO HealthNet, alternative health care delivery system proposals, mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse and addiction. It shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning the preservation of the quality of life for senior citizens, nursing home and boarding home operations, alternative care programs for the elderly, and family and children's issues. It shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning income maintenance, social services, child support enforcement, public health, disease control, and hospital operations. 11. The Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to the promotion of economic development, the creation and retention of jobs, tourism and the promotion of tourism as a state industry, community and business development, county government, township organizations and political subdivisions. 12. The Committee on the Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence shall consider and report upon bills and matters relating to the judicial department of the state including the practice of the courts of this state, civil procedure and criminal laws, criminal costs and all related matters. The Committee shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to probation or parole of persons sentenced under the criminal laws of the state. 13. The Committee on Progress and Development shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning the changing or maintenance of issues relating to human welfare. 14. The Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics shall consider and report on rules for the government of the senate and joint rules when requested by the senate, shall consider, examine and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to ethics and the conduct of public officials and employees, shall recommend to the Senate the rules by which investigations and disciplinary proceedings will be conducted, and shall examine and report upon all resolutions and other matters which may be appropriately referred to it. The committee shall see that bills and amendments are properly perfected and printed. The committee shall examine all Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed bills carefully, and report that the printed copies furnished the senators are correct. Upon the written request of the sponsor or floor handler of a bill, the committee may recommend that any such bill on the calendars for perfection or house bills on third reading be called up or considered out of order in which the bill appears on that calendar. A recommendation to consider bills out of order shall require approval by a majority of the committee with the concurrence of two-thirds of the senate members. No floor debate shall be allowed on the motion to adopt the committee report. The Committee shall examine bills placed on the Consent Calendar and may, by majority vote, remove any bill from the consent calendar within the time period prescribed by Rule 45, that it determines is too controversial to be treated as a consent bill. 15. The Committee on Small Business, Insurance and Industry shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it relating to the ownership and operation of small businesses; and life, accident, indemnity and other forms of insurance. The committee shall also take into consideration and report on bills relating to labor management, fair employment standards, workers' compensation and employment security within the state and shall examine bills referred to it relating to industrial development. 16. The Committee on Transportation shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning roads, highways, bridges, airports and aviation, railroads, port authorities, and other means of transportation and matters relating to motor vehicles, motor vehicle registration and drivers' licenses. 17. The Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Emerging Issues, Pensions and Urban Affairs shall consider and report upon bills and matters concerning veterans' affairs. The committee shall also consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning issues of statewide or immediate concern, retirement, pensions and pension plans; and urban renewal, housing and other matters relating to urban areas. 18. The Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight shall consider and report upon bills and matters referred to it concerning the revenue and public debt of the state, and interest thereon, the assessment of real and personal property, the classification of property for taxation purposes and gaming. The Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight shall also consider and report upon all bills, except regular appropriation bills, that require new appropriations or expenditures of appropriated funds in excess of $100,000, or that reduce such funds by that amount during any of the first three years that public funds will be used to fully implement the provisions of the Act. Any such senate bill, after having been approved by the regular standing committee to which it has been assigned and after the same has been perfected and ordered printed by the senate, shall thereafter be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight for its consideration prior to its submission to the senate for final passage thereof by the senate. Any such house bill after having been reported by the regular standing committee to which it was assigned shall be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight for its consideration prior to its being considered by the senate for third reading and final passage. Any senate or house bill, amended so as to increase expenditures or reduce revenue in excess of $100,000 during any of the first three years that public funds will be used to fully implement its provisions shall upon timely motion be referred or re-referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight. The author or first-named sponsor of a bill referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight shall be entitled to a hearing on his/her bill but such committee hearing shall be limited to the reception of testimony presented by the author or first-named sponsor in person and none other. The Committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight may recommend the passage of a bill subject to the adoption of an amendment specifying a certain effective date proposed by the committee, and if such an amendment is not adopted, the bill shall again be referred to the committee on Ways and Means and Fiscal Oversight. Rule 29. 1. Senate offices and seats in the senate chamber shall be assigned by the committee on administration to the majority and minority caucuses. Each caucus shall make office and senate seat assignments on the basis of seniority as defined in this rule, unless otherwise determined within a caucus, except that Rooms 326 and 327 shall be known as the president pro tem's office and shall be occupied by the senate's president pro tem. Upon retirement from service as pro tem, that senator shall vacate the pro tem's office and shall have first choice of available vacant offices of his caucus, regardless of his seniority status. Except for the outgoing president pro tem, who is required to vacate the designated pro tem's office, no senator shall be required to relinquish any office or seat once assigned to him. 2. Seniority shall be determined by each caucus on the basis of length of service. Length of service means: (a) Continuous senate service; (b) In the case of equal continuous senate service, prior non-continuous senate service; (c) In the case of equal continuous and prior non-continuous senate service, prior house service. 3. When two or more members of the same party have the same length of service, their respective seniority shall be determined by their party caucus. Rule 30. A senator appointed to a committee may resign at any time by leave of the senate. Rule 31. 1. The standing committees of the senate on Administration, Appropriations, and such other committees as the president pro tem shall designate, may function within the state unless otherwise approved by the president pro tem during the interim between the end of the first regular session and the commencement of the second regular session, at such times and places as are considered necessary to consider bills and other matters referred to them, to hold hearings, hear testimony, receive evidence, make such studies as are deemed necessary and to perform any other necessary legislative function pertinent to their respective powers and duties. 2. The actual and necessary expenses of each committee functioning during the interim pursuant to the provisions of this rule, and the expenses of its members and the research and clerical personnel assigned to it incurred in attending meetings of the committee or of any subcommittee thereof, shall be paid from the senate contingent fund upon the approval of the chairman of the committee on administration and the president pro tem of the senate. Reports of Committees Rule 32. Reports of special or standing committees of the senate relating to appropriations, expenditures or improper use of money, and senate reports relating to the duties of management of any board of managers, directors, trustees or agents of any of the educational and eleemosynary institutions of the state, or of any state officer or coordinate branch of the state government, shall without further order be printed in the appendix of the Journal. Rule 33. No report of a committee of conference, or any house amendment to a senate bill shall be declared adopted without the assent of the majority of all the senators elected, and the yeas and nays taken thereon and entered upon the Journal. Rule 34. When motions are made to refer any subject and different committees are proposed, the question of reference shall be in the following order: a Standing Committee, a Select Committee, the Committee of the Whole. Rule 35. No committee shall sit during the sitting of the senate without special leave. Committee of the Whole Rule 36. It shall be a standing order of the day through the session for the senate to resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole. Rule 37. In forming the Committee of the Whole, the president pro tem of the senate shall appoint a chairman to preside. Rule 38. Upon a bill being committed to the Committee of the Whole, it shall be read by the secretary and then read and debated by clauses or sections, as determined by the committee, leaving the preamble to be considered last. After the report, the bill shall be subject to be debated and amended by clauses or sections before a vote on the question to perfect and print it is taken. Rule 39. All amendments made to an original motion in committee shall be incorporated with the motion and so reported. Rule 40. All amendments made to reports, resolutions and other matters committed to Committee of the Whole shall be noted and reported as in all cases of a bill. Rule 41. The rules and proceedings of the senate shall be observed in Committee of the Whole insofar as they are applicable. Rule 42. A majority of the senators elected shall be a quorum to do business and if the committee finds itself without a quorum, the chairman shall cause the roll of the senate to be called, and thereupon the committee shall rise, the president resume the chair and the chairman report the cause of rising of the committee and the names of the absentees to the senate shall be entered in the Journal. Rule 43. A motion for the rising of the Committee of the Whole is always in order, unless a member of the committee is speaking or a vote is being taken and shall be decided without debate. Legislative Procedure for Enactment of Bills Rule 44. Beginning on July first of each year, members and members-elect may deposit bills and joint resolutions for the next regular session with the secretary of the senate at any time. The secretary shall hold the bills and joint resolutions so deposited in the order filed. After the close of business on December first, the secretary shall assign numbers to bills and joint resolutions deposited in that office by seniority of the member first signing the measure, with a limit of three bills or joint resolutions per rotation of the seniority list from the total number of measures deposited. All measures deposited through December first shall stand as pre-filed without further action by the member or member-elect. At the close of business on each day thereafter until the opening day of the session, bills and joint resolutions received during the day shall be assigned numbers in the same manner, that is, by seniority from the total number of measures filed each day, with a limit of three bills or joint resolutions per rotation of the seniority list. Once filed, bills and joint resolutions shall not be changed except to correct patent typographical, clerical or drafting errors that do not involve changes of substance, nor shall substitutions be made therefor. Any bill may be withdrawn but the number shall not be reassigned once a number has been given. Seniority for the purposes of this rule shall be determined as follows: (1) Continuous senate service; (2) In the case of equal continuous senate service, majority party members shall have seniority over minority party members; (3) In the case of equal continuous senate service by members of the same party, prior non-continuous senate service; (4) In the case of equal continuous and prior non-continuous senate service by members of the same party, prior house service; (5) In the case of equal continuous and equal prior non-continuous senate service and equal prior house service by members of the same party, seniority shall be determined by the caucus of that party. Rule 45. There shall be a senate consent calendar. The sponsor of a senate bill shall first give notice of desire to have a bill placed upon the senate consent calendar by filing in writing, with the chairman of the committee to which the bill was referred, a notice of intent one day prior to a committee hearing. The notice of intent shall set forth the nature of the legislation, the fact that it is not a controversial bill, and a request that the senate committee recommend that the bill be placed upon the consent calendar. A bill shall not be considered as consent if it increases net expenditures of the state by more than $100,000, reduces net revenue of the state by more than $100,000, increases an existing civil or criminal penalty or if it creates a new civil or criminal penalty. The bill will go to the senate consent calendar if, a quorum being present, it receives a unanimous affirmative vote of do pass by all members present at the senate committee to which the bill was referred, and there is thereafter a motion made and unanimously carried by affirmative vote of all those present that it be placed upon the consent calendar. Any bill approved by committee, for consent, may be reported to the consent calendar at any time the Senate goes to the order of business of committee reports. When a bill is placed upon the consent calendar, third reading shall not commence until the fifth legislative day. During this four-day period, starting with the first day the bill appears on the consent calendar in the Journal any member or the Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions, and Ethics may, by filing written objection with the Secretary of the Senate, direct that it be returned to the senate committee from which it was reported for action in accordance with the rules of the senate. A bill placed upon the senate consent calendar shall not be subject to amendment, except for committee amendments, and after the committee amendments have been disposed of shall be third read as though it had previously been perfected. If returned to committee, the chairman may report the bill to the senate at the next time that order of business is taken up, without further action of the committee. No senate bill may be placed on the consent calendar after March fifteenth and no house bill shall be placed on the consent calendar after April fifteenth. Rule 46. Any bill or joint resolution which proposes the amendment or reenactment of an existing statutory or constitutional provision with changes in the language thereof, in setting forth the provision as amended or changed, shall upon introduction, after perfection, and upon final passage have the matter which is to be omitted included in its proper place enclosed in brackets and all new matter to be inserted shall be underscored when typewritten for introduction. When printed the amendatory or reenacting bill or joint resolution shall show the matter to be omitted enclosed in bold-faced brackets and the new matter shall be shown in bold-faced Roman type. A footnote shall be annexed to the first page of each bill which contains material enclosed in bold-faced brackets to the following effect: "Explanation--Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets in the above bill is not enacted and is intended to be omitted from the law." When a section is completely rewritten, the existing section shall be set forth in bold-faced brackets in a note following the new section, but the changes need not be distinguished. When any section is to be repealed and no reenactment of the material therein is proposed, the section shall be set forth in the bill in bold-faced brackets. Statutory section numbers of any senate bill or joint resolution or any substitute for a house bill shall be presented, as nearly as practicable, sequentially throughout the body of the bill followed by any undesignated sections. Any bill or joint resolution or substitute therefor which does not comply with this rule shall not be placed upon the calendar of the senate. Rule 47. Each bill or joint resolution shall, before being finally acted upon by any committee, be submitted to the committee on legislative research for preparation of a fiscal note examining the cost of the proposed legislation to the state for the first two years that public funds will be used to fully implement the provisions of the Act, whether or not the proposed legislation will establish a program or agency that will duplicate an existing program or agency, whether or not there is a federal mandate for the program or agency, whether or not the proposed program or agency will have significant direct fiscal impact upon any political subdivision of the state, or whether or not any new physical facilities will be required. The fiscal note for a bill shall accompany the bill throughout its course of passage, and may from time to time be revised to reflect changes made in the bill prior to its presentation to the governor for his approval. Rule 48. No bills, other than appropriation bills, shall be introduced in the senate after March first of any regular session unless consented to by a majority of the elected members of the senate, and no bills other than appropriation bills shall be introduced in the senate after the sixtieth legislative day of any regular session, unless consented to by a majority of the elected members of the house and senate, or the governor requests consideration of the proposed legislation by a special message. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 25.) Rule 49. Up to one thousand copies of all bills and joint resolutions shall be printed after their first reading and before a second reading is permitted, unless otherwise ordered. Bills and resolutions for the senate shall be printed in pamphlet form, as for the last and previous sessions, in page size eight and one-half by eleven inches. A copy of the printed bill shall be attached to the original bill when it is referred to committee, and thereafter the original and the printed copy thereof shall be kept together. The bill shall not be re-typed, but upon perfection a printed copy of the bill with all amendments or substitutes adopted incorporated shall be attached to the original bill. Upon final passage by the senate, the original, with a printed copy of the bill as perfected attached thereto, shall be transmitted to the house. Upon final passage by both houses the bill shall be printed as truly agreed and finally passed, shall be signed by the presiding officers in printed form, and shall be presented to the governor in printed form with appropriate spaces for signatures, and such printed bill, appropriately signed, shall constitute the original roll for the bill. Rule 50. Referrals of bills and appointments to committee shall be made by the president pro tem; and no bill shall be considered for final passage unless it has been reported on by a committee and printed for the use of the senators. A report of all bills recommended "do pass" by a committee shall be submitted to the senate by the chairman and all committee amendments accompanying the report shall be printed in the Journal. After a bill has been referred to a committee, one-third of the senators elected has the power to relieve a committee of further consideration of a bill and place it on the calendar for consideration. In any case where a committee has been relieved of further consideration of a bill as herein provided, a majority of the senators present but not less than one-third of the senators elected, may, at any time before final passage thereof, again refer the bill to the same or some other committee for consideration. No bill or resolution shall be reported adversely by any committee until the author of the bill or resolution has been given an opportunity to appear and be heard before the committee to which it is referred. One-third of the senators elected may relieve a committee of an appointment and a motion to grant advice and consent of the Senate to that appointment is then in order upon a vote of the majority of the Senate. Rule 51. A majority of the members of a committee constitutes a quorum. No committee shall take final action on a bill unless a quorum is present. Each committee shall keep a record of the members present when a bill is finally considered; and this record and the record of the votes cast shall be filed by the committee with its report. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 22.) No bill shall be reported from a committee unless such action is approved by affirmative vote by a majority of those present. Votes of "present" and abstentions from voting shall not be counted in the affirmative or negative. Executive sessions may be used only for purposes of discussion. Rule 52. Senate bills reported to the senate from any committee shall lie on the table one day before being perfected and ordered printed. Senate bills reported perfected and house bills reported from committee shall lie over one day before being third read. Rule 53. Senate bills reported adversely from standing committees shall not be placed on the calendar, but on motion made within two legislative days after the report is filed, the author of the bill being present, it may be placed on the calendar by a vote of the majority of senators elected. If no such vote is taken within that time, the bill shall lie on the table. House bills reported adversely from the standing committees shall not be placed on the calendar, but on motion made within two legislative days after the report is filed may be placed on the calendar by a majority vote of the senators elected. If no such vote is taken within that time, the bill shall lie on the table. Rule 54. No law shall be passed except by bill, and no bill shall be so amended in its passage through the senate as to change its original purpose. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 21.) Rule 55. Every bill shall be read by title on three different days. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 21.) Rule 56. Bills, whether they originate in the senate or in the house, may be amended or rejected. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 21.) Rule 57. No bill shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title, except bills enacted under the third exception in Section 37 of Article III of the Constitution, and general appropriation bills, which may embrace the various subjects and accounts for which moneys are appropriated. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 23.) Rule 58. No act shall be revived or reenacted unless it shall be set forth at length as if it were an original act. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 23.) Rule 59. On all bills containing an emergency clause, the vote shall be taken on the bill, excluding the emergency clause, and if the bill receives the vote of a majority of all the senators elected then the vote shall be taken on the emergency clause without debate, and if two-thirds of the senators elected vote in favor of it, the bill takes effect at the time described in the preamble of the emergency clause thereof. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 29.) Rule 60. An amendment shall not go beyond the second degree to an original bill. All amendments adopted by either house to a bill pending and originating in the same shall be incorporated in the bill, and the bill as perfected shall before the third reading and final passage, be printed for the use of the members. The printing of bills ordered to third reading and final passage shall be under the supervision of the Committee on Rules, Joint Rules and Resolutions, whose report shall set forth that they find the printed copy of such bills as theretofore agreed and furnished for the use of the members is correct. A correct record of each day's proceedings in each house shall be furnished for the use of the members of the general assembly before the record is approved and no bill shall be signed by the presiding officer of either house until such printed copy thereof shall have been furnished for the use of the members of the general assembly and the record of the previous day shall have been approved. When agreed to by both houses, the bill as finally passed shall be typed or printed and signed by the presiding officer of each house and transmitted to the governor. Rule 61. If a bill passed by the senate is returned thereto, amended by the house, the senate shall cause the amendment or amendments received to be printed and copies distributed among the members before final action on such amendments. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 24.) Rule 62. No amendment to bills by the house shall be concurred in by the senate except by a vote of the majority of the senators elected taken by yeas and nays, and the names of those voting for and against recorded upon the Journal, and if amendments are concurred in by the senate, the bill, as amended, shall be submitted to the vote of the senate by yea and nay vote, and the names of those voting for or against recorded on the Journal; and reports of committees of conference shall be adopted in the senate only by a vote of a majority of the senators elected thereto, taken by yeas and nays, and the names of those voting recorded on the Journal. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 27.) If a bill passed by the Senate is returned thereto, amended by the House in the form of a substitute with adopted amendments, it shall be considered as a whole without the amendments being subject to consideration individually. The same shall apply to House bills returning to the Senate which have been passed by the Senate in the form of Substitutes with adopted amendments. Rule 63. No act shall be amended by providing that designated words be stricken out, or that designated words be inserted, or that designated words be stricken out and others inserted in lieu thereof, but the words to be stricken out, or the words to be inserted, or the words to be stricken out and those inserted in lieu thereof, together with the act or section amended, shall be set forth in full as amended. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 28.) Rule 64. A substitute for the text of a bill is not in order until all pending amendments thereto have been disposed of. A substitute bill for an original bill or for a committee substitute shall take the form of an original bill and be subject to floor amendments, except that it shall not be subject to amendment by a further floor substitute. No further amendments or substitutes may be entertained after the senate adopts a substitute bill. Rule 65. The withdrawal of a pending motion by its maker or a motion to place a bill on the informal calendar, along with any pending amendments or substitutes, by its sponsor is a privilege that may be exercised at any time, even while another member is addressing the senate or if an amendment or substitute is pending. When the senate returns to the bill, the sponsor of the pending amendment or substitute shall be first recognized by the chair on the pending amendment or substitute. Final Passage - Yeas and Nays Rule 66. 1. To effect the passage of a bill on the final reading thereof, the vote shall be taken by yeas and nays, and the names of the senators voting for and against the same shall be entered and recorded in the Journal, and if a majority of the senators elected vote in favor thereof, the bill shall be declared passed. No senator shall be allowed to cast or change his or her vote after the senate's action on said question is announced by the president. 2. Any member may offer an amendment or amendments for the portion of a joint resolution or bill to be submitted to the voters by the General Assembly that contains the proposed official summary statement and fiscal note summary. Such amendment may be further amended as provided by the rules of the Senate. Rule 67. When a bill is put upon its final passage and, failing to pass, a motion is made to reconsider the vote by which it was defeated, the presiding officer shall briefly state the nature of the bill. Thereupon the vote on the motion to reconsider shall be immediately taken, without interrogation or debate, and the subject finally disposed of without interrogation or debate before the senate proceeds to any other business. Rule 68. No bill shall become a law until after it has been signed by the presiding officer of the senate, in open session. Before the presiding officer affixes his or her signature to any bill he or she shall suspend all other business, declare that the bill will now be read, and that if no objection be made he or she will sign it to the end that it may become a law. The bill shall then be read and if no objection is made, he or she shall, in the presence of the senate, in open session, and before any other business is entertained affix his or her signature, which fact shall be noted in the Journal, and the bill immediately sent to the other house. If any senator objects that any substitution, omission or insertion has occurred, so that the bill proposed to be signed is not the same in substance and form as when considered and passed by the senate or house, or that any particular clause of Article III of the Constitution has been violated in its passage, such objection shall be passed upon by the senate, and if sustained, the presiding officer shall withhold his or her signature; but if the objection is not sustained, then any five members may embody it over their signature, in a written protest, under oath, against the signing of the bill. The protest, when offered in the senate, shall be noted upon the Journal, and the original shall be annexed to the bill, to be considered by the governor in connection therewith; and if the bill is one that has not been first signed by the presiding officer of the house, it shall immediately be sent to the house after it has been so read and signed in the senate, for such action thereon in the house as is prescribed by the constitution. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 30.) Rule 69. When any bill passed by both houses has been signed as provided for in the preceding rule, it is the duty of the secretary of the senate, if the bill originated in the senate, to present it in person, on the same day on which it was signed, as aforesaid, to the governor, take his or her receipt therefor and enter the fact of such delivery and the time thereof upon the Journal. Every bill presented to the governor and returned within fifteen days to the house in which it originated, with the approval of the governor shall become a law unless it is in violation of some provision of the constitution. Rule 70. Bills vetoed by the governor and returned to the senate by the governor or by the house shall stand as reconsidered and such action shall be taken thereon as prescribed by the constitution and by the Joint Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives. (Constitution, Art. III, Sec. 32.) Rule 71. All resolutions proposing amendments to the constitution shall be treated, in all respects, in the introduction and form of proceedings on them in the senate, in the same manner as bills. All other orders and resolutions (except courtesy resolutions) shall be referred to a committee unless the senate otherwise expressly allows by a majority vote of senators elected. Courtesy resolutions will be read only upon request of the senator offering the resolution. Courtesy resolutions shall be printed in the Journal only upon the request of the senator offering the resolution. A senator who wishes to offer a courtesy resolution which is not to be read or printed may file the resolution with the secretary of senate who will show the resolution in the Journal as having been adopted by the senate. Privileged Motions Rule 72. A motion to adjourn and a motion to fix the day to which the senate shall adjourn is in order, unless a senator is speaking, or the yeas and nays are being taken, or a call is being made, and shall be decided without debate; and no senator shall leave his or her seat until the result is declared. Rule 73. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received but to adjourn, to lay on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to commit or amend, to postpone indefinitely, which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are arranged. Pending the motion to lay on the table, the merits of the question shall not be discussed, and no motion to postpone to a certain day, to commit or postpone indefinitely, being decided, shall again be allowed on the same day, at the same stage of the bill or proposition. Rule 74. When a question is postponed indefinitely it shall not be acted on during the session. Rule 75. When a question is laid on the table, it may not thereafter be considered except by vote of two-thirds of the senators elected, except that all measures, other than bills which stand as reconsidered having been returned by the governor with his or her objections, not finally acted upon on adjournment of the senate in odd-numbered years shall lie on the table and the subject matter of such measures may be taken from the table only by reintroduction of a measure at a subsequent session of the senate. Of Decorum and Debate Rule 76. When a senator is about to speak, he or she should rise respectfully and address himself or herself to the chair, standing at his or her seat, and wait until his or her name or designation is announced, when he or she shall proceed, addressing himself or herself always to the chair. If a senator is unable to stand due to a permanent physical disability, he or she, after seeking recognition from the chair, shall be recognized in lieu of standing. If a senator is unable to stand due to a temporary physical disability, he or she shall send a letter to the secretary of the senate, which shall be printed in the journal and subsequently shall be recognized from the chair in lieu of standing. In order to maintain the recognition of the chair, the senator must be engaged in debate or in discourse. When a senator is engaged in debate or discussion and seeks to have the senate stand at ease, the senator must seek unanimous consent of the body. Rule 77. If two or more senators seek recognition in accordance with Rule 76 at once, the chair shall name the senator who is to speak first, the other seeking recognition having the preference next to speak. However, nothing in this rule shall be interpreted to prevent any senator not chosen to speak first from immediately making any motion that is in order under the rules. Rule 78. The chair shall preserve decorum, and if any senator transgresses the rules of the senate, the chair shall, or any senator may, call him or her to order, in which case the senator called to order shall immediately sit down, unless permitted to explain; and the senate, if appealed to, shall decide on the case. If there is no appeal, the decision of the chair shall prevail. If the decision of the chair is in favor of the senator called to order, he or she shall be at liberty to proceed. Rule 79. If a senator is called to order for words spoken in debate, the senator calling him or her to order shall repeat the words excepted to, and they shall be taken down in writing on the secretary's table, and no senator shall be held to answer, or be subject to the censure of the senate for words spoken in debate, if any other senator has spoken or business has intervened after the words spoken and before exception to them has been taken. Rule 80. No senator shall speak more than once on the same question without leave of the senate, unless he or she is the mover, proposer or introducer of the matter pending, in which case he or she shall be permitted to speak or reply, but not until every senator choosing to speak has spoken. After a senator has been recognized to close, no other senator is permitted to speak on the pending matter, except that in the case of a proposed amendment to a bill or resolution, the proponent of the amendment and the author of the bill or resolution to be amended may be interrogated, but, in the case of a bill or resolution, only the author of the bill or resolution may be interrogated. Rule 81. In proceedings and debate of the senate, the senators shall not be spoken of or addressed by their individual names. Rule 82. If the question in debate contains several points, any senator may have it divided if it comprehends propositions in substance so distinct that by one being taken away a substantive proposition remains for the decision of the senate. On motion to strike out and insert, it shall not be in order to move for a division of the question, but a rejection of the motion to strike out and insert a different proposition shall not prevent a subsequent motion simply to strike out, nor shall the rejection of a motion simply to strike out prevent a subsequent motion to strike out and insert. Rule 83. On the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a senator require secrecy, the president shall order the gallery to be cleared, and during the discussion the doors shall remain closed unless otherwise directed by the senate. When nominations are made in writing by the governor of the state to the senate for confirmation, the confirmation shall, without debate, be sent to the senate for confirmation, the confirmation shall, without debate, be referred to the appropriate committee for investigation, and their report shall be made to the senate as soon as practicable. Previous Question Rule 84. The previous question shall be in this form: "Shall the main question be now put?". It shall only be admitted on written demand of five senators, and sustained by a vote of a majority of the senators elected, and in effect shall be put without debate, and bring the senate to direct vote upon a motion to commit, if such motion shall have been made; and if this motion does not prevail, then upon amendments, and then upon the main question. On demand for the previous question, a call of the senate shall be in order, but after a majority of the senators elected have sustained such a motion, no call shall be in order prior to the decision on the main question. Rule 85. On motion of the previous question, no debate shall be allowed and all incidental questions of order arising after the motion is made for the previous question, and pending such motion, shall be decided on appeal or otherwise without debate; if, on a vote for the previous question, the motion is not sustained by a majority of the senators elected, then the further consideration of the subject matter shall be in order. Motion - How Put Rule 86. Every motion, except motion to recess or adjourn, shall be reduced to writing if two or more senators request it. Rule 87. When a motion is made it shall be stated by the chair, or being in writing, it shall be handed to and read aloud by the secretary before debate. Rule 88. After a motion is stated by the chair, it is deemed to be in possession of the senate, but may be withdrawn at any time before a decision or amendment, but afterwards only with the consent of the senate. Rule 89. All questions, whether in committee or senate, shall be first stated in the order in which they are moved, but voted upon in reverse order, except privileged questions, which shall be propounded as stated in Rule 73; and in filling up blanks, the largest sum and longest time shall be put first. Rule 90. The yeas and nays shall not be ordered on any question after a vote has been taken thereon and declared by the chair. Rule 91. Every senator who is within the bar of the senate when a question is put shall assume his or her seat, and shall vote when his or her name is called unless the senate, for spe

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve. The New York Constitution provides for a varying number of members in the Senate; the current membership is 62, elected from single-member constituencies equal in population. History of the Senate From a State Constitutional Perspective The New York State Senate, under the State's first Constitution which was adopted in 1777, consisted of 24 members, elected from and by the freeholders of the state possessing one hundred pounds over and above all indebtedness. The members were apportioned among four great districts and were chosen for four-year terms, the length of the first term to be decided after the election, by lot, with the terms of six members expiring each year. An additional Senator was to be added to each district whenever it was shown, by a septennial census, that the number of electors within the district had increased one twenty-fourth. The maximum number to which the Senate could be increased was placed at 100. When, after the census of 1795, the number of Senators had been increased to 43, the rule was found to be unequal in its operation and, in 1801, the Constitution was amended fixing the number at 32. Under the Constitution of 1821, the qualifications of both the Senators and the electors were liberalized. The number of Senators was continued at 32, but the number of great districts in the State was increased from four to eight. It provided that one Senator should be chosen from each district each year, with the length of the terms of the first again to be decided after the election, by lot. The two-year Senatorial term was established in 1846 when the Constitution of that year divided the State into 32 Senatorial districts and provided for the election of one Senator from each district. The Constitution of 1894 increased to 50 the number of Senatorial districts, and also provided for reapportionment by legislative determination. In 1907, the Legislature passed a reapportionment act increasing the number of Senate districts to 51. A redistricting act passed in 1916 was declared unconstitutional, but a similar measure, which continued the membership of the Senate at 51, was passed in 1917. All efforts to enact reapportionment legislation after that date failed until 1943 when the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a proposal that increased the number of districts and the membership of the Senate to 56.The first Senate under this new law was chosen at the 1944 general election. A reapportionment law enacted in 1953, effective in the 1954 election, increased the membership to 58. In 1964, a new reapportionment law was enacted, increasing the Senate to a membership of 65. This law was in Federal and State courts several times after enactment, and the 1966 Senate was based on the act. Members served for one year pending enactment of a new plan, which was to meet the objections of all the courts. In 1966, a court-devised plan set up a Senate of 57 members who were elected in the 1966 general election for a two-year term. In December, 1971, at the first extraordinary session of the Legislature, the State law was amended, effective January 14, 1972, providing for a Senate of 60 members. The constitutionality of this act was sustained by the State Court of Appeals in December, 1972. In accordance with federally mandated guidelines on reapportionment, Chapter 455 of the Laws of 1982 increased the number of Senate members to 61 by creating an additional Senate District. In the 2002 reapportionment, the number of Senate members increased to 62 when another Senate District was added. Besides passing upon legislative proposals and constitutional amendments, the Senate confirms or rejects nominations made by the Governor for the filling of certain State and judicial offices. It also sits at times as a court of impeachment, and can be convened in extraordinary session to perform either of these latter functions. The Lieutenant Governor while not a member of the Senate, is its President and presiding officer but, by constitutional enactment, has only a casting vote therein. The Majority Leader is also the Temporary President, presides in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor and is next in line to the Lieutenant Governor in succession to the governorship. The Senate is headed by its President, a post held ex officio by the Lieutenant Governor. The Senate President has a casting vote in the event of a tie, but otherwise may not vote. More often, the Senate is presided over by the Temporary President, a post which is normally also held by the Majority Leader. After the 2008 elections, the Senate had a Democratic majority for the first time since 1965. They lost that majority on November 2, 2010, when Republican Jack Martins defeated Democratic Senator Craig Johnson. Following the defections of Jeffrey Klein, David Valesky and Diane Savino from the Democratic caucus, the trio joined freshman David Carlucci in a newly formed Independent Conference; this conference serves as "crossbenchers" separate from the Democratic and Republican conferences. The Senate has one additional member outside those who are elected by the people: the Secretary of the New York State Senate is a post that is chosen by a majority vote of the senators, and does not have voting power (he/she is allowed, though officially discouraged, from discussing and negotiating legislative matters). The Secretary of the Senate is responsible for overseeing the handling of bills and the oversight of the sergeants-at-arms and the stenographer, both of which are answerable to the secretary. The position is currently held by Frank Patience, who was elected to a two-year position in January 2011

In 1885, the 1850's version of the New York State Coat of Arms was selected by the Legislature as the "permanent design and legal form." According to Joseph Gavit in New York History, Volume XXXI, the seal symbolizes the following: Parts of New York State Seal Used By The Senate In the center, a shield reveals the sun rising behind Mount Beacon over the Hudson River. "The shield symbolizes in the full sun the name and idea of Old York and the old world; the mountains, river and meadow, with the ships, convey the name and idea of New York in the new world." To the right, Justice is ready to fight tyranny with her sword held high. Liberty on the left, holds her foot on the overthrown English Crown. "This New York is supported by Justice and Liberty, and discards monarchy." The world globe is displayed above the shield. "By exhibiting the eastern and western continents on the globe, the old and new are brought together;" Above the world globe soars the eagle. "while the eagle on the crest proclaims," Westward the course of empire takes its way." The bottom ribbon exclaims "Excelsior," which means "still higher" or "ever upward."

R338-2011: Establishes the rules of the Senate for the 2011-2012 session �@ RESOLVED, That the Rules of the Senate for the years 2011-2012 are here by adopted to read as follows RULES OF THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 2011-2012 RULE I THE PRESIDENT Section 1. The Lieutenant Governor of the State shall be President of the Senate, but shall have only a casting vote therein. RULE II THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT Section 1. The Senate shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members and the Senate shall choose a Tempo rary President, by resolution adopted upon the vote of a majority of the members of the Senate elected, who shall be the majority leader and who shall preside, or designate some other member to preside, in case of the absence from the Chamber or impeachment of the Lieutenant Governor, or when he or she shall refuse to act as President, or shall act as Gover nor. The temporary president may not serve in such capacity longer than eight years. 2. He or she shall appoint the Deputy Majority Leader for Legisla tive Operations, the Deputy Majority Leader, the chair, vice-chair and members of all committees and sub-committees, except when the Senate shall otherwise order. 3. He or she shall be the Chair of the Committee on Rules. 4. He or she shall appoint such officers and employees of the Senate as may be necessary for the work of the Senate. 5. He or she shall designate the persons entitled to admission to the floor as reporters for the news media. 6. He or she shall have general control, except as otherwise provided by law or in these rules, of the Senate Chamber and the lobbies and galleries thereof, and of the rooms, corridors and passages in that part of the Capitol and Legislative Office Building assigned to the use of the Senate, and any other property leased or utilized by the Senate. 7. He or she shall appoint, in conjunction with the Speaker of the Assembly and the Legislative Librarian, an Assistant Legislative Librar ian, to have charge and custody of all legislative documents, as defined in this section, who shall be responsible for collecting, numbering, indexing and retaining the same in the legislative library in an area designated for such use by the Legislative Librarian. At least two copies of all such documents shall be kept in such library at all times and made available to Members of the Legislature and legislative employ ees for public inspection and duplication during library hours. The function of the Legislative Library is to serve the information and research needs of Members of the Legislature and legislative staff as defined by the Legislative Law. The services provided shall include professional reference, access to standard commercial online databases and the availability of records of the Library's holding on the Legisla tive Retrieval System (LRS). The Library is charged with the collection and custody of all Legislative and State documents as defined by this section. Access to the collection shall be provided by the Legislative Library State Documents (LLSD) database on LRS. Documents may be retained in paper, microform, laser disk or any other medium approved for archiving documents. To effectuate the purposes of this section, the Assistant Legislative Librarian in charge of legislative documents may request from any committee, commission, task force or office of the Legislature, and the same are authorized to provide, such assistance, services and data as will enable such librarian to carry out his or her duties as prescribed in this section. For purposes of this section, the term legislative document shall mean and include the Rules of the Senate, the Rules of the Assembly, reports of the Legislature and reports of every legislative committee, subcom mittee, task force or other adjunct of the Legislature and all reports and documents required by law or regulation to be submitted to the Legislature by any department, board, bureau, commission or other agency of the State. The provisions of this section and paragraph ten of subdivision c of section one of Rule I of the Assembly are intended to result in the appointment of a single Assistant Legislative Librarian to serve both Houses of the Legislature. 8. He or she shall represent the Senate, or engage legal represen tation on behalf of the Senate, in any legal action or proceeding involving the interpretation or effect of any law of the federal, state or local government or the constitutionality thereof or with regard to the enforcement or defense of any right, privilege or prerogative of the Senate. 9. He or she shall, to the extent practicable, use the Internet and other electronic media to provide access to the public policy debates, decision-making process and legislative records of the Senate. RULE III PRESIDING OFFICER Section 1. The Presiding Officer of the Senate shall preserve order and decorum in the Senate Chamber; ensure that debate is germane to the question under discussion; in case of disturbance or disorderly conduct in the lobby or galleries, he or she may cause the same to be cleared; he or she shall decide all questions of order, subject to appeal to the Senate. On every appeal he or she shall have the right, in his or her place, to assign his or her reasons for his or her decision. 2. Immediately upon the final passage by the Senate of any bill, or concurrent resolution proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State, and concurrent resolutions proposing or ratifying amendments to the Constitution of the United States he or she shall certify that the same has been duly passed, with the date thereof, together with the fact whether passed as a majority or two-thirds bill or resolution, or with three-fifths of the members present, as the case may be, as required by the Constitution and laws of the State, and deliver said bill or resol ution to the Secretary. 3. When the Presiding Officer is other than the President of the Senate, such Presiding Officer shall be vested with all of the powers and duties conferred by these rules and by any other rule or law upon the President. RULE IV THE SENATE AND ITS OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES Section 1. The Senate shall not discriminate because of race, creed, color, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, or disability in judging the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, or in the appointment of any member to committee or other office, or in the appointment of any of its officers or employees. 2. The administration and operations of the Senate shall be conducted in a fair and nonpartisan manner, including access to services necessary to all members and their offices, without regard to the members conference. 3. The minority leader shall not serve in such capacity longer than eight years. 4. The Senate may choose a Secretary, a Sergeant at Arms and an Official Stenographer who shall be elected for the term of the Senate. Such employees may be appointed as shall be provided for by appropri ation, in the manner provided by law. Each officer and employee of the Senate shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law, or by these rules, or as may be incumbent upon them in their respective posi tions. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to have the journals, bills, calendars, messages and other documents printed and distributed in the manner provided by law. He or she shall present to the Governor, and enter upon the journals, such bills as shall have originated in the Senate and shall have been passed by both houses. He or she shall, subject to the Rules of the Senate, transmit to the Assembly all bills or concurrent resolutions which have passed the Senate. 6. The Sergeant at Arms, under the jurisdiction of the Secretary, shall be the security officer of the Senate, and, except when absent in the discharge of his or her duties, shall be in constant attendance upon the sessions of the Senate and shall assign Assistant Sergeants at Arms to act as doorkeepers and, under the direction of the Presiding Officer, aid in enforcing order on the floor of the Senate, in the lobbies, and in the rooms adjoining the Senate Chamber, and also see that no person remains on the floor unless entitled to the privileges of the same. He or she shall also assist in maintaining order at hearings of the Senate and in that part of the Capitol and Legislative Office Building assigned to the use of the Senate and on sites in New York State where members are conducting the business of the Senate and security is deemed neces sary by the Secretary. 7. The Official Stenographer or designee shall attend every session of the Senate and take stenographic notes of the debates of the Senate. He or she shall make a stenographic record of the proceedings and make copies available to the Secretary of the Senate. In addition, the Offi cial Stenographer shall be responsible, under the direction of the Secretary, for making a stenographic record of public hearings at the request of the Standing Committee Chair or appointed officer and make copies available to the Committee Chair and the Secretary. RULE V PROCEEDINGS Section 1. a. The Journal. The Senate shall keep a journal of its proceedings and publish the same, except such parts as may require secrecy. The legislative and executive proceedings of the Senate shall each be recorded in a separate journal. b. Video of Senate proceedings. The Senate shall video record its proceedings and make such video available through the Senate web site. 2. Hours in session. No session shall be held between 12:00 A.M. and 8:00 A.M.; provided, however, that the Senate may remain in session to complete action on a measure or measures upon which debate was begun prior to 12:00 A.M. or to act on a measure or measures for which a message of necessity has been received from the Governor or upon a majority vote of all of the members elected to the Senate. 3. Order of Business. a. The Presiding Officer shall take the Chair at the hour to which the Senate shall have adjourned and following a recital of the pledge of allegiance to the flag, the first business of the day shall be the reading of the journal of the preceding day, to the end that any mistakes therein may be corrected. After the reading and approving of the journal, the order of business shall be as follows: (1) Presentation of petitions. (2) Messages from the Assembly. (3) Messages from the Governor. (4) Reports of standing committees. (5) Reports of select committees. (6) Communications and reports from State officers. b. A quorum being present the Senate shall proceed to: (1) Motions and resolutions. (2) The calendar. (3) Petition for chamber consideration. c. All questions relating to the priority of business shall be decided without debate. 4. Messages. Messages from the Governor and Assembly, communications and reports from State officers, reports from a committee involving the right of a Senator to his or her seat, and reports from the Committee on Rules shall be received at any time. 5. Special orders. Whenever any bill or other matter is made a special order for a particular day, and it shall not be completed on that day, it shall, unless otherwise ordered, retain its place on the calendar as a special order in the order of business in which it was considered. When a special order is under consideration, it shall take precedence over any special order for a subsequent hour of the same day; but such subsequent order may be taken up immediately after disposal of the previous special order. 6. Calendar. a. The matters upon the Senate Calendar shall be arranged and acted upon in the following order: (1) Resolutions. (2) Bills on order of first report. (3) Bills on order of second report. (4) Bills on order of special report. (5) Bills starred after report. (6) Bills on third reading calendar from special report. (7) Bills on third reading. (8) Bills starred on third reading. (9) Resolution to amend the Senate Rules. (10) Motions for chamber consideration. b. Bills laid aside by the office of the Temporary President shall continue to retain their place in their regular order of business until called for debate by the Temporary President. c. Except for bills reported from a standing committee and placed on that part of the calendar designated as "order of special report," bills reported from a standing committee shall be placed on the first report calendar and, unless starred, shall be automatically advanced to the second report part of the calendar after one calendar legislative day. Bills on second report shall, unless starred, be advanced to the order of third reading after one calendar legislative day. No debate shall be allowed on the advancement of bills on the order of first or second report or special report. The order of special report shall be marked with an asterisk to indicate that such bills will be subject to debate on the next calendar legislative day. In the event that such bills are not debated on such day, they shall be removed from the order of special report and placed on that part of the calendar designated "bills on order of first report". 7. Executive Session. The Senate shall go into consideration of executive business at such times as may be ordered by a vote of the majority of the Senators present. On motion to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of business which in the opinion of any Senator may require secrecy, and during the consideration of all busi ness in executive session, the Presiding Officer shall direct all persons, except the Senators, the Counsel to the Majority, the Counsel to the Minority, Secretary of the Senate, his or her messenger, the Journal Clerk and Sergeant at Arms of the Senate to withdraw; and during the discussion of said motion the doors shall remain shut; and every Senator and officer of the Senate shall keep secret all such matters, proceedings and things which shall transpire while the doors remain closed. 8. Motions. a. When a question is before the Senate, only the following motions shall be made by a Senator, and such motions shall have precedence in the order here stated, viz.: (1) For an adjournment. (2) For a call of the Senate. (3) For the previous question. (4) To lay on the table. (5) To postpone to a certain day. (6) To commit to a standing committee. (7) To commit to a select committee. (8) To change calendar arrangement. (9) To amend. b. The motion to adjourn, or for a call of the Senate, or for the previous question, or to lay on the table, shall be decided without debate, and shall always be in order except as provided in Rules five, seven and nine. c. Except for the motions enumerated in subdivision a hereof, all other motions shall be reduced to writing, if desired by the Presiding Officer or any five Senators, delivered to the Secretary, and read before the same shall be debated; and any motion may be withdrawn at any time before decision or amendment. d. A motion for the previous question, or a motion to postpone to a certain day, or to commit, or refer to a standing or select committee, until it is decided, shall preclude all debate of the main question. e. A motion for the previous question shall only be in order when made by the Temporary President, the Minority Leader or their designee. The "previous question" shall be put as follows: "Shall the main question now be put before the house?" and until it is decided, shall preclude all amendments or debate. When, on taking the previous question, the Senate shall decide that the main question shall now be put, the main question shall be put to an immediate vote. When, on taking the previous question, the Senate shall decide that the main question shall not now be put, the main question shall be considered as still remaining under debate. The "main question" shall be the advancement or passage of the bill, resolution or other matter under consideration. Such motion shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators elected. 9. Reconsideration. a. When a question has once been put and decided, it shall be in order for any Senator to move for the reconsideration thereof; but no motion for the reconsideration of any vote shall be in order after the bill, resolution, message, report, amendment, nomination or motion, upon which the vote was taken, shall have gone out of the possession of the Senate; nor shall any motion for reconsider ation be in order unless made on the same day on which the vote was taken, or within the next three days of the actual session of the Senate thereafter. Nor shall any question be reconsidered more than once; but when a bill or resolution shall have been recalled from the Assembly, a motion for reconsideration may be made at any time thereafter while the same is in the possession of the Senate, and all resolutions recalling a bill or resolution from the Assembly shall be regarded as privileged. No vote shall be reconsidered upon either of the following motions: To adjourn. To lay on the table. b. The vote on the final passage of any bill appropriating moneys or property, or creating, continuing, altering or removing any body politic or corporate, shall not be reconsidered whenever any such bill shall be lost, unless by a vote of a majority of all the Senators elected, but all other bills, when the same shall have been lost, may be reconsidered by a vote of a majority of all the Senators present and voting. RULE VI INTRODUCTION OF BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS Section 1. Introduction. Bills and resolutions shall be introduced by a Senator, or on the report of a committee, or by message from the Assembly, or by order of the Senate, or by the Governor pursuant to Article VII of the Constitution. Every bill introduced shall be in duplicate and shall have endorsed thereon a title and the name of the bill's sponsor and shall be accompanied by the introducer's memorandum in quadruplicate. Such memorandum shall contain a statement of the purposes and intent of the bill and, if the member deems it appropriate, may set forth such other statements that the member feels necessary including, but not limited to, statements relating to economic impact, environmental impact or the impact on the judicial system of the bill. A Committee, where it deems necessary, may require that the introducer's memorandum be amended to include such appropriate statements. Bills introduced by Senators shall be deposited with the Revision Clerk for the purpose of having such clerk examine and correct bills to avoid repetition of introduction and ensure accuracy in the text and references. Upon introduction, each bill shall be deemed to have had its first and second reading, unless otherwise ordered and shall be given a number and immediately referred to the appropriate standing committee by the Temporary President or an officer designated by the Temporary Presi dent in accordance with a set of guidelines to be published annually by the Temporary President setting forth the respective statutes over which each of the standing committees shall have subject matter jurisdiction for purposes of referral. Such referrals shall reflect the subject matter having predominance in the bill as determined by the Temporary President. 2. Multi-sponsorship. Any Senator may join together in the multi sponsorship of a bill. If two or more Senators join together when a bill is first introduced and before it is printed, the names of all multi sponsors shall appear on the printed bill upon the following conditions: a. Multi-sponsors shall file a written request in duplicate to act as such, on forms provided, with the Revision Clerk of the Senate. The first name appearing on the bill shall be deemed the introducer and all others deemed multi-sponsors. b. The introducer shall at all times retain exclusive control of the bill until formally acted upon by the Senate and any motion to discharge a bill out of committee by a member who is not the introducer of the bill shall be out of order. c. After a multi-sponsored bill has been printed, any multi-sponsor desiring to withdraw from such multi-sponsorship shall file a written request on a form provided so that his or her name will be stricken as a multi-sponsor from the records of the Revision Clerk. The printed bill, however, shall not be reprinted. d. Senators and Senators-elect may multi-sponsor bills that have been pre-filed and bills introduced after the opening of each legislative session upon the following conditions: (1) After a bill has been introduced and printed and before it has been reported favorably out of the Committee to which it was referred, any Senator or Senators may file with the Revision Clerk a request on a form provided to become a multi-sponsor of such bill. Such forms must be signed by the multi-sponsor . (2) Such bill shall not be reprinted solely for the purpose of adding or deleting names of multi-sponsors. (3) Any Senator, having become a multi-sponsor of a bill, may withdraw from such by filing a request on a form provided to the Revision Clerk requesting that his or her name be stricken as a multi-sponsor from the record. (4) Any Senator who has become a multi-sponsor of a bill in the manner set forth herein shall have the right to distribute such bill bearing an endorsement by rubber stamp or otherwise the words "multi-sponsored by" and insert his or her own name as multi-sponsor. 3. Printing. Every bill immediately upon its introduction shall be printed and placed on the bill files on the desks of the Senators, where it shall remain for at least three calendar legislative days. All bills reported favorably or for consideration, if reported with amendments, and all bills amended in the Senate, shall be immediately printed, except that any bill which is amended by restoring it to an earlier form, shall not be required to be printed again, and thereafter the printed number of the bill in the form to which it has been so restored shall constitute the final form of such bill unless further amended. Whenever a bill is amended and printed, a letter of the alphabet start ing with "A" shall be added to its number. 4. Title and body of bill. The title of every bill shall briefly state the subject thereof. The title of every bill amending or repealing any provision of a consolidated law shall refer to such law. The title of every bill amending or repealing any unconsolidated law shall refer to such law by its short title, if it has one; if it has no short title, the title of such bill shall state the chapter number, year of enactment and the complete title of the original bill or a short summary of the provisions to which the law relates. If such bill is amending or repeal ing a proposed provision of law contained in a bill that has not been enacted into law, the title shall state the number of the bill contain ing the proposed provision of law to be amended or repealed, with suffix, if there be one, and the subject of the provisions to which the amendatory bill relates. No private or local bill may be passed which shall embrace more than one subject which shall be expressed in the title.a. In any bill, each section proposing an amendment to or the repeal of: (i) any consolidated law, or any part thereof; or (ii) the Family Court Act, the Court of Claims Act, the Uniform District Court Act, the Uniform Justice Court Act, the Uniform City Court Act, the New York City Charter, the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the New York City Civil Court Act, the New York City Criminal Court Act, or the Char ter of the City of Buffalo, or any part thereof shall refer to such law, act, charter or code. In any bill, each section proposing an amendment to or the repeal of an unconsolidated law having a short title, or any part thereof, shall refer to such law by its chapter number and year of enactment and its short title. If an unconsolidated law shall have no short title, each section shall state the chapter number and year of enactment of such law, and a short summary of the provisions to which the law relates or the complete title of the original bill. If such section amends or repeals a proposed provision of law contained in a bill that has not been enacted into law, each section shall state the number of the bill containing such proposed provisions of law to be amended or repealed, with suffix, if there be one. If the portion of the law proposed to be amended has been added, renumbered or amended since the original enactment or last general revision of the law of which it is a part, such section shall also state the chapter number and year of the last act adding, renumbering or amending the same, as the case may be. There shall be appended at the end of every bill which proposes the repeal or extension of any existing law, or part thereof, merely by reference thereto, without setting forth the text thereof, an explana tory note which shall briefly and concisely state the subject matter of the law, or part thereof, proposed to be repealed or extended, unless such subject matter is stated in the title of such bill. The Revision Clerk of the Senate shall return any bill to the Senator introducing the same when it is called to his or her attention that the provisions of this section, or of section one of this Rule, have not been complied with, or when any copy of a bill is illegible or incomplete. b. Every bill when introduced, and every amendment thereafter made to such bill amending existing law, must have all new matter underscored, and all matter eliminated by amendment from existing law must appear in its proper place enclosed in brackets. In the printed bill such new matter shall be underscored and all matter eliminated by amendment from existing law shall be enclosed in black-faced brackets. When any exist ing law or part thereof is proposed to be repealed by a bill, the word "repealed" as it appears in such bill shall be printed in bold-faced type. When a printed bill is amended by eliminating new matter from such bill, the same shall be omitted in the reprint of the original. When amendments are offered to a printed bill, the proposed changes, indicat ing page and line numbers, shall be listed on four detail sheets and the same changes shall be incorporated and marked on two copies of the bill; provided, however, that no amendment shall be allowed to any bill which is not germane to the original object or purpose thereof. Furthermore, when a printed bill is amended the accompanying introducer's memorandum, required pursuant to section one of this Rule, shall also be amended to reflect any changes. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to direct the Revision Clerk to cause any bill appearing on the calendar and not complying with this section to be immediately amended and printed so as to comply with the same. 5. Final date. a. The Temporary President may designate a date in writing after which no bill or original resolution shall be introduced except by message from the Assembly, but no date prior to the first Tuesday of March shall be so designated; provided, however, that all bills recommended by a State department or agency must be submitted to the office of the Temporary President not later than the first day of March. Bills proposed by the Governor, the Attorney General, the Comp troller, the Department of Education or the Office of Court Adminis tration must be submitted to the office of the Temporary President no later than the first Tuesday in April. b. All bills introduced in the Senate after the second Friday in June shall be introduced to the Committee on Rules. 6. Budget bills. When a bill is submitted or proposed by the Gover nor by authority of Article VII of the Constitution, it shall become, for all legislative purposes, a legislative bill, and upon receipt ther eof by the Senate it shall be endorsed "Budget Bill" and be given a number by the Secretary and shall be referred to the Finance Committee and be printed. 7. Program, departmental and agency bills. Every bill proposed by the Governor, the Attorney General, the Comptroller or by state depart ments and agencies shall be submitted to the office of the Temporary President and shall be forwarded for introduction purposes to the appro priate standing committee in accordance with section one of Rule VI. Any such bill which is not so forwarded within three weeks after receipt by the Temporary President shall be offered by the office of the Temporary President to the Minority Leader who may in accordance with section one of Rule VI, forward such bills to any member for introduction purposes. 8. Reintroduction. Any Senate bill introduced in the first year of the term of the Senate which during that regular Legislative Session was not reported from a Standing Committee or if reported and later recom mitted to a Standing Committee is deemed to be automatically reintro duced for the second year of the term of the Senate. All bills which remain on the calendar at the end of the first year of the term of the Senate shall be recommitted to committee. 9. Resolutions. a. All original resolutions shall be in quadrupli cate, and no original resolution may be introduced unless copies thereof first shall have been furnished forty-eight hours prior to the time for acting on such resolution to the Temporary President and Minority Lead er. All resolutions, upon introduction, shall be referred to a standing or select committee by the Temporary President or an officer designated by the Temporary President and shall at all times remain within the exclusive control of the introducer. Notwithstanding any of the forego ing provisions of this section, resolutions recalling bills from or returning bills to the Assembly, or relating to adjournment, may be introduced at any time for immediate consideration. b. A resolution supporting or condemning, or proposing or urging a change in Federal law which is not directly germane to the affairs, business, rights, benefits and obligations of New York State shall be out of order and shall not be reported and any resolution recommending, urging, supporting, altering or condemning a position or change in foreign policy of the United States Government or the domestic or foreign affairs of any other government of the World shall be out of order and shall not be reported. c. All resolutions which propose any amendment to the State Constitu tion shall be referred to the Attorney General as provided in Article XIX of the Constitution, and shall be treated in the same form of proceedings as that provided for bills; and resolutions which ratify any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States shall be treated in the same form of proceedings as provided for bills. After a resolution to amend the State Constitution shall be advanced to third reading, no motion to amend the same shall be in order without unanimous consent; and if such resolution to amend the State Constitution shall be amended after the opinion of the Attorney General thereon has been received as provided in Article XIX of the Constitution, it shall again be referred to the Attorney General. Any such resolution may be commit ted prior to the final reading thereof. d. All resolutions calling for the expenditure of moneys must be decided by a majority vote of all of the members elected to the Senate, upon a call of the roll. e. All resolutions other than those mentioned and treated in the preceding subdivisions c and d of this section and reported by the committee of reference designated by the Temporary President shall be placed upon the calendar. When in the order of business the resolutions are reached, the Senate may adopt such resolutions as a group, by one vote upon the question of the entire calendar of resolution, excepting that any member may request that any one or more of the resolutions on such calendar shall be voted upon or debated separately. This subdivi sion shall not apply to any resolution recalling bills from or returning bills to the Assembly, or relating to adjournment or to resolutions pertaining to the rules of the Senate or to those resolutions regarded as privileged. RULE VII STANDING COMMITTEES Section 1. There shall be the following standing committees which shall serve and shall continue throughout the year:To consist of thirty-three Senators:FinanceTo consist of twenty-four Senators:RulesTo consist of twenty-three Senators:JudiciaryTo consist of nineteen Senators:BanksTransportationTo consist of eighteen Senators:EducationHigher Education InsuranceTo consist of seventeen Senators:HealthTo consist of sixteen Senators:CodesLaborTo consist of fourteen Senators:Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Environmental Conservation Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs To consist of twelve Senators:AgingCivil Service and Pensions Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business Energy and Telecommunications To consist of ten Senators:AgricultureConsumer Protection Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Racing, Gaming and Wagering To consist of eight Senators:ElectionsHousing, Construction and Community Development Investigations and Government Operations Local Government To consist of six Senators:Children and Families CitiesCorporations, Authorities and Commissions EthicsSocial Services Alcoholism and Drug Abuse a. The Temporary President, the Vice President Pro Tempore, the Deputy Majority Leader for Legislative Operations and the Minority Leader and Deputy Minority Leader shall be nonvoting ex-officio members of all standing committees of the Senate of which they are not actual members. As far as practicable, Senators shall be appointed to no more than seven standing committees. b. Term limits for chairs and ranking members. No chair or ranking member of a committee shall serve in such capacity longer than eight consecutive years. c. Conference membership of committees. The membership of all commit tees, unless otherwise provided by the act or resolution creating them, shall be composed, as nearly as may be, of majority and minority party members in the same proportion as the number of majority and minority party members in the Senate bears to the total membership of the Senate. For purposes of committee composition, in the event that the proportion of majority members would result in a fractional amount, the number of majority members shall be rounded up to the next whole number. 2. Committee on Rules. The Committee on Rules may sit at any time and shall report bills out of committee only if they shall have been duly reported to the Committee on Rules from a standing committee of origin, or from a committee of secondary reference, or if the chair of such standing committee consents, or if the bill was referred to the Committee on Rules upon introduction. Other than a motion to hold, a motion to discharge, or a motion to report, no other motion shall be in order in the Committee on Rules without the consent of the Committee Chair. The reception and consideration of its report shall always be in order; debate on its adoption shall not exceed one hour, one-half hour for and one-half hour against, such time to be allotted by the Temporary President and Minority Leader; and no other motion, except a motion by the Temporary President for a call of the Senate, to adjourn or to recess, shall be in order until the vote of the Senate is had thereon. If the report be adopted, all inconsistent rules of the Senate shall automatically be suspended until the subject of such report has been disposed of, including final action thereon. 3. Open Meetings of Standing Committees. a. (1) Standing committees shall hold regular meetings at such time and on such day as scheduled by the Deputy Majority Leader for Legislative Operations in consultation with the chair and such schedule shall be published one week in advance of the date of such meeting and shall be posted on the Senate committee board. The attendance of the members of the committee shall be recorded at each meeting, and a copy of such report shall be filed with the Jour nal Clerk of the Senate and made available to the public. Each chair of a standing committee shall, no later than 3 p.m. the Thursday preceding the regular meeting, furnish to the Temporary President and Minority Leader, and make available to each member of such committee, a copy of the agenda of such regular meeting together with a copy of the introducer's memorandum for each bill listed on such agenda for such regular meeting. In addition, copies of such agenda for such regular meeting shall be made available to representatives of the news media and to the general public. However, in case of necessity, the chair with consent of the ranking member may add no more than four items on the agenda or delete items on the agenda up to 24 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting and members shall be notified of such additions or deletions. Each standing committee chair shall decide all procedural issues which arise during meetings of standing committees. (2) Standing committees may hold special meetings in case of necessity upon the call of the chair when the announcement is made from the floor during session, or the ranking minority member of the committee consents thereto, or upon the call of a majority of all the members thereof, entry of which fact shall be made on the records of the committee and announced by the Secretary of the Senate. (3) All meetings of committees shall be open to authorized represen tatives of the news media and the general public as observers. (4) All meetings of committees shall be recorded by video and to the extent practicable webcast live. Video of all committee meetings shall be made available on the Senate website and updated daily. (5) Upon the personal vote of a majority of all the members of a committee, taken in an open meeting pursuant to a motion identifying the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered, a committee may conduct an executive session of which only members of such committee are present for the following enunciated purposes provided, however, that no action by formal vote shall be taken to appropriate public monies: (a) matters which will imperil the public safety if disclosed; (b) any matter which may disclose the identity of a law enforcement agent or informer; (c) information relating to current or future investigation or prose cution of a criminal offense which would imperil effective law enforce ment if disclosed; (d) discussions regarding proposed, pending or current litigation; (e) collective negotiations pursuant to article fourteen of the Civil Service Law; (f) the medical, financial, credit, character or employment history of any person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of any person or corporation; (g) the preparation, grading or administration of examinations; and (h) the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property, but only when publicity would substantially affect the value of the property. (6) Attendance at an executive session shall be permitted to any member of the committee and any other persons authorized by the commit tee. b. (1) Minutes shall be taken at all open meetings of committees which shall consist of a record or summary of all motions, proposals, resol utions and any other matter formally voted upon and the vote thereon. (2) Minutes shall be taken at executive sessions of any action that is taken by formal vote which shall consist of a record or summary of the final determination of such action, and the date and vote thereon; provided, however, that such summary shall not include any matter which is not required to be made public by "the freedom of information law" as added by Article six of the Public Officers Law. (3) Minutes of meetings of all committees shall be available to the public in accordance with the provisions of Article six of the Public Officers Law, "the freedom of information law", and at such time and place as prescribed by the Temporary President, provided, however, that minutes for executive session meetings shall be available to the public within one week from the date of such executive session. c. The provisions of this section except paragraph three of subdivi sion a, and subdivision b shall not apply to the Committee on Rules. d. Committee presentations. The chair of a committee may invite inter ested persons to offer a presentation for a given amount of time on a bill on the meeting agenda with notice provided to the ranking member no less than 72 hours in advance. Where a committee chair makes such an invitation, the ranking member shall be afforded an equal number of speakers who may speak for an equal amount of time. In addition, the ranker, without consent of the chair, shall be able to schedule 3 committee presentations with notice provided to the chair at least 72 hours in advance. The chair shall be afforded an equal number of speak ers who may speak for an equal amount of time. e. Motion for committee consideration. No motion for committee consid eration shall be in order after the first Monday in May. The sponsor of any bill may file, through the Journal Clerk, a motion for committee consideration forty-five days after the bill has been referred to such committee. Once a motion for committee consideration is filed, the chair of the committee shall place the bill on a committee agenda and schedule a vote on the bill within forty-five days. In the case of a bill that is referred to a standing committee having secondary reference, the bill shall be considered within the next two committee meetings. 4. Hearings. a. Committee hearings. Chairs of standing committees may call public hearings to permit interested persons, groups or organ izations the opportunity to testify orally or in writing on legislation or issues pending before such standing committee. Chairs are encouraged to hold public hearings on legislation of important public interest, where, outside of the budget, significant public money is allocated, broad conduct is regulated or where the proposal has a broad public impact. Chairs may request that the Official Stenographer make a steno graphic record of a public hearing. Official hearings may be conducted in accordance with procedure established by law. No committee may take testimony at a hearing unless at least two of its members are present at such hearing. Prior notice of all public hearings shall be filed by the chair or his or her designee with The Legislative Bill Drafting Commis sion and the Temporary President and such notice shall contain informa tion as to subject matter, date and place. b. Public forums. Notwithstanding the public hearings conducted by standing committees, any Senator may convene a public forum on proposed or pending legislation within the jurisdiction of a committee upon which he or she is a member, provided that any charge incurred attendant to such forum be borne by said Senator or his or her party conference. Prior notice of such forum shall be filed with the chair of the committee. c. Committee oversight function. Each standing committee is required to conduct oversight of the administration of laws and programs by agen cies within its jurisdiction. d. Each standing committee is required to file with the secretary of the senate an annual report, detailing its legislative and oversight activities. Such report shall be posted to the Senate web site. e. Petition for a public hearing on a bill. By a petition of one-third of the members assigned to a committee rounded up to the nearest whole number, a public hearing shall be scheduled on a specific bill or number of bills within the jurisdiction of a committee, unless the majority of members of the committee reject such petition. Such petitions shall be submitted to the clerk of the committee for presentation at the next committee meeting. Public hearings scheduled by petition will be held at least 14 days following the committee meeting at which it was considered. f. Hearings of standing committees shall be video recorded and to the extent practicable webcast live. Video of such hearing shall be posted to the Senate web site within 24 hours. 5. Reports. a. No committee shall vote to report a bill or other matter unless a majority of all the members thereof vote in favor of such report. Each report of a committee upon a bill shall have the vote of each Senator attached thereto and such report and vote shall be available for public inspection. A member's vote on any matter before the committee shall be entered by the member on a signed official voting sheet delivered to the Committee Chair. Any standing committee having secondary subject matter jurisdiction over a bill may request the chair of the committee having primary subject matter jurisdiction over said bill (which is the committee to which the said bill has been referred by the Temporary President pursu ant to Rule VI) to commit the bill to the committee with secondary subject matter jurisdiction either when the bill is still in the primary committee or after it has been reported to the calendar. If the chair of the primary committee refuses said request, then the committee having secondary jurisdiction, through its chair, may request the Temporary President to consider such secondary referencing. If a secondary refer ence is so made, the secondary committee shall consider the bill forth with and return said bill to the primary committee or the calendar, as the case may be, along with the secondary committee's recommendations. Any bill which is referred to a standing committee other than the Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business and which imposes or changes any reporting requirements or mandates on businesses or relates to the procedure by which such reporting requirements or mandates are imposed or changed, shall, if favorably reported by the committee having original jurisdiction, be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business for the purpose of reviewing and considering the economic impact of the provisions of such bill. In the event that such a bill is not referred to the Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business the chairperson of such Committee may require such referral, subject to the approval of the Temporary President or his designees. All committee reports, after the second Friday in June, shall be made directly to the Committee on Rules. Notwithstanding any provision of Rule VI, the Committee on Rules shall have the authority to introduce and refer bills to itself and shall also have the authority to refer to itself any bill from any standing committee. Every report of a committee upon a bill which shall not be considered at the time of making the same, or laid on the table by a vote of the Senate, shall stand upon the calendar in the order of first report with the bill and be entered upon the journal. b. Each bill reported by a standing committee shall be accompanied by a report, and the minority shall file a minority committee report within seven days of the bill being reported out of committee and said reports shall be filed with the journal clerk. The report of a committee upon any matter referred to it shall upon request include a brief statement of the opinion of any member or members of the committee voting in either the majority or minority. c. Where a "home rule" request is required as provided in any section of Article IX of the Constitution, such request, certificate or message must be filed with the Journal Clerk of the Senate before final passage of such bill. d. Where a message of necessity is received from the Governor, such message shall be filed with the Journal Clerk of the Senate upon final passage of the bill. 6. Nominations. Unless the Senate orders otherwise, all nominations sent by the Governor for the appointment of any officer shall be submit ted to the Temporary President who shall then refer such nominations simultaneously to the Finance Committee, and the appropriate standing committee, for consideration and recommendation and such standing committees, other than the Committee on Judiciary shall thereafter refer such nominations to the Finance Committee of the Senate who shall take whatever further actions it deems necessary and thereafter make its report on the nominations to the full Senate. Any Senator may submit a request to the Chair of a Standing Committee considering a nomination, to speak before the committee for not more than five minutes on the nomination. The granting of any such request shall be at the sole discretion of the Committee Chair. A nomination shall not be confirmed without reference on the day on which it is received except by unanimous consent. The names of those who voted for or against the nomination may be entered alphabetically on the journal, if any five Senators request it. 7. Finance Committee. A bill or resolution providing for an appro priation or creating or increasing a charge upon the State Treasury shall, when reported by any committee other than the Finance Committee, be referred to the Finance Committee, and the committee reporting such bill or resolution shall, at the time of making such report, recommend the further reference thereof to the Finance Committee. At the request of the Temporary President or the Chair of the Finance Committee, any such bill or resolution shall, at any time before final reading or adoption, be referred to the Finance Committee, which may consider and report upon any features in the bill or resolution creating or increas ing such charge. The sponsor of a bill providing for an increase or decrease in state revenues or in the appropriation or expenditure of state moneys, without stating the amount thereof, must, before such bill is reported from the Finance Committee or other committee to which referred, file with the Finance Committee and such other committee a fiscal note which shall state, so far as possible, the amount in dollars whereby such state moneys, revenues or appropriations would be affected by such bill, together with a similar estimate, if the same is possible, for future fiscal years. Such an estimate must be secured by the sponsor from the Division of the Budget or the department or agency of state government charged with the fiscal duties, functions or powers provided in such bill and the name of such department or agency must be stated in such note.The Finance Committee shall keep and maintain a file containing all bills requiring fiscal notes and the notes appertaining thereto, which shall be available to Senators and officers of the Senate, accredited representatives of the press, and other responsible persons having a legitimate interest therein. RULE VIII PASSAGE OF BILLS Section 1. Bills on desks. No bill shall be passed unless it shall have been printed and upon the desk of each Senator in its final form at least three calendar legislative days prior to its final passage, unless the Governor or acting Governor shall have certified, under his or her hand and the seal of the State, the facts which in his or her opinion necessitate an immediate vote thereon, in which case it must neverthe less be upon the desks of all Senators in final form, not necessarily printed, before its final passage. No bill shall be passed pursuant to a message of necessity unless a majority of the Senators vote to approve the use of such message. 2. Reading of bills. a. Every bill shall receive three readings previous to its being passed. b. Upon the third reading of a bill, the question upon its final passage shall be taken immediately thereafter; provided, however, that any bill may be committed prior to the final reading thereof. 3. Third reading calendar. a. The Calendar of bills on the order of third reading shall consist of all bills which have been advanced to a third reading from the order of second report or the order of special report. b. All Senate bills, when advanced to a third reading shall be referred automatically to the Jacketing Clerk, who shall cause each such bill to be readied for final passage in the same form as the last print ed copy thereof. All such bills shall be jacketed with the proper jurat for certification of final passage attached. 4. Amendments. a. A non-sponsor may move to amend a bill at any time prior to the completion of its third reading provided that at least two hours before the time for the Senate to convene, a copy of the proposed amendment or amendments to any bill on the list of bills compiled under subdivision a of section six of this Rule has been served upon the spon sor of the bill, and filed with the Journal Clerk. If a sponsor does not accept such amendment, the question shall be put to the house whether a majority of members elected vote in favor of the non-sponsor motion to amend, and such motion shall pass only if a majority of members elected vote aye. If the sponsor accepts the amendment, such amended bill shall be ordered printed without a vote, debate or explanation, and such bill shall retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar. b. If a majority of members elected vote in favor of the non-sponsor motion to amend, the sponsor of the bill may make a motion to withdraw their name from sponsorship to be substituted by a co-sponsor or the Senator who moved to amend the bill. c. The introducer of any calendar bill may offer an amendment or amendments to such bill and such amendment or amendments shall be accepted and the bill ordered printed without a vote, debate or explana tion, provided, however, that in such case such bill may be recommitted by the chair of the standing committee that reported such bill and such recommittal shall also be without a vote, debate or explanation. 5. Substitution. When a bill is received as a message from the Assembly, or at any time thereafter, and a Senate bill, identical there with, is on the order of third reading, or in the order of first or second report, the Assembly bill may be substituted for the Senate bill upon a vote of a majority of the Senate. A motion for such substitution shall be in order under the order of business of messages from the Assembly, motions and resolutions, or the order of business in which the Senate bill is. 6. Final passage. a. Prior to the reading of the third reading calendar of any given day, the Temporary President may file with the Journal Clerk an active list of bills on the third reading calendar which may be acted upon on that date and he or she may lay aside any bill upon which no final action may be taken, provided however, that no bill shall be so laid aside for a period exceeding five calendar legis lative days. Such active list shall be published by 8 p.m. the previous evening or within two hours following the end of the previous days' session, whichever is later. b. The question on the final passage of every bill shall be taken immediately after the third reading and without debate. On the final passage of every bill and concurrent resolution a fast roll call shall be taken by the Secretary calling the names of five Senators, two of whom shall be the Temporary President and the Minority Leader provided, however, that each Senator's name shall be called on a slow roll call if requested by five Senators. Each roll call, including the names of the Senators who were absent shall be entered on the journal. Upon each roll call vote, the Secretary shall announce the names of the Senators voting in the negative and the names of the Senators who were absent. Such roll calls shall be available for public inspection upon request in the office of the Journal Clerk. When a bill or concurrent resolution does not receive the number of votes required by the Constitution to pass it, it shall be declared lost, except in cases provided for by subdivision d of section two of Rule IX hereof. 7. Starred bills. a. A bill appearing on the calendar may be "starred" only by or on behalf of the introducer, whereupon all further action on such bill shall be suspended, although it retains its place on the Calendar. b. Other than for the purpose of amendment or recommittal, no action may be taken on a bill from which a star has been removed until one day after such removal. 8. Recall and concurrence. All Senate bills amended by the Assembly, and returned to the Senate, for its concurrence, and all bills amended by the report of a conference committee, shall be subject to the provisions of section one of this Rule. 9. Transmittal of bills to the Governor. All Senate bills passed by the Senate and sent to the Assembly for action shall, upon passage and return by the Assembly to the Senate, be transmitted by the Secretary to the Governor within forty-five days after receipt from the Assembly; except that upon the filing of a request to hold such bill with the Secretary by the sponsor of the bill, the bill shall be held until such time as the sponsor rescinds the request to hold the bill and upon such rescission the Secretary shall transmit the bill to the Governor within seven days. RULE IX SENATORSSection 1. Attendance and vote. a. Every Senator shall be present within the Senate Chamber during the sessions of the Senate, unless duly excused or necessarily prevented, and shall vote on each question for which a vote is required stated from the Chair unless excused by the Senate, or unless he or she has a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the event of such question. If any Senator refuses to vote, unless he or she be excused by the Senate, or unless he or she be interested, such refusal shall be deemed a contempt. In order to vote on a bill on the controversial calendar, a Senator, other than the Temporary President or Minority Leader, must be present in the Senate chamber and vote from his or her regularly assigned seat, except that a Senator acting as the Presiding Officer, Temporary President or Minority Leader may vote from the place assigned to such officer. No Senator absent from a roll call vote shall be allowed to vote thereon; however, within the same day, a Senator required to attend a public hearing or other meeting of a stand ing or conference committee, which the Temporary President has desig nated as appropriate, may cast his or her vote at any time prior to 5:00 P.M. or the adjournment of the Senate, whichever shall be later. b. A Senator desiring to be excused from voting for a direct personal or pecuniary interest in the issue then before the Senate may, when his or her name is called, state such desire and if there be an objection make a brief statement, not occupying over two minutes, of the reasons for making such request, and the question on excusing him or her shall then be taken without debate and shall be granted by the consent of two-thirds of the Senators present; and any Senator desiring to explain his or her vote upon a bill, may, when his or her name is called, be allowed a like opportunity. 2. Quorum. a. A majority of all the Senators elected shall consti tute a quorum to do business. In case a less number than a quorum of the Senate shall convene, those present are authorized to send the Sergeant at Arms, or any other person, for the absent Senators. b. The assent of two-thirds of the Senators elected shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys or property for local or private purposes, and to the passage of bills returned by the Governor without his or her approval. c. On the final passage of any bill which imposes, continues or revives a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust money or property, or releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the State, three-fifths of all the members elected to the Senate shall be necessary to constitute a quorum therein. d. If, on taking the final question on a bill, it shall appear that a constitutional quorum is not present, or if the bill requires a vote of two-thirds of all the Senators elected to pass it, and it appears that such number is not present, the bill shall retain its place on the Calendar and be again taken up in its regular order. e. When any bill requiring the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators, or a quorum of three-fifths thereof, is under consideration, such concurrence or quorum, as the case may be, shall not be requisite except on the question of its final passage. f. If at any time during the session of the Senate a question shall be raised by any Senator as to the presence of a quorum, the Presiding Officer shall forthwith direct the Secretary to call the roll, and shall announce the result, and such proceeding shall be without debate; but no Senator while speaking shall be interrupted by any other Senator raising the question of a lack of a quorum, and the question as to the presence of a quorum shall not be raised more often than once in every hour unless the lack of a quorum shall be disclosed upon a roll call of the ayes and nays. g. Whenever upon a roll call any Senator who is upon the floor of the Senate Chamber refuses to make response when his or her name is called, it shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer, either upon his or her own motion or upon the suggestion of any Senator, to request the Senator so remaining silent to respond to his or her name, and if such Senator fails to do so, the fact of such request and refusal shall be entered in the journal, and such Senator shall be counted as present for the purpose of constituting a quorum. 3. Debate. a. Debate shall only be in order when it is germane to the question under discussion. �@ b. If the question in debate contains several points, a Senator may have the same divided, provided the division called for embodies a distinct principle or statement of fact. c. When any bill, resolution or motion is under consideration and it appears that no Senator desires to be heard further, the Presiding Offi cer shall put the question: "Does any Senator desire to be heard further?" If no Senator shall rise to debate, the Presiding Officer shall declare the debate closed; except that thereafter the Minority Leader may speak once, or may yield the floor to any Senator who may speak once, and may be followed by the Temporary President who may also speak once, or may yield the floor to any Senator who may speak once. The main question shall then be put immediately. d. Debate on motions or resolutions other than concurrent resolutions shall be limited to one hour with one-half hour allocated to each conference. Debate upon any bill or concurrent resolution shall be limited to four hours, which shall include sufficient time for all Senators to explain their votes. No single Senator shall debate any bill or concurrent resolution for more than thirty minutes. When any bill or concurrent resolution shall have been under consideration for two hours, including all amendments thereto, it shall be in order for any Senator to move to close debate, and the Presiding Officer shall recognize the Senator who wishes to make such motion. Such motion to close debate shall not be amendable or debatable and shall be immediately put, and if it shall receive the affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators present, the pending measure shall take precedence over all other busi ness. e. The vote shall thereupon be taken upon such bill, resolution or motion with such amendments as may be pending at the time of such motion, according to the Rules of the Senate, but without further debate, except that upon the roll

I M P U L S I V EBART ALLENThings to follow:x. Right off the bat; Do not rush me. You might see me online a lot but that's out of convenience because I work from my own computer. That being said, I try to keep myself updated in things going on but that by no means is an indication that I have time to churn out replies left and right. I prefer quality and it simply can't be done to my own expectations at irrational speeds, despite my character. x. AIM, yeah I have it. Feel free to send an IM but don't get crabby if I don't reply or stop talking. Again, I work from my own computer so sometimes I have to just drop some conversations. Keep it interesting though, and I might prioritize. x. Writing; I'm a muli-para role-player with the ability to do novella. However, I find that some novella writers just like to cram filler in for the sake of length. Don't do that to me. I won't judge you if you send three or ten paragraphs as long as the content is good. Don't expect me to match your length either. I'll do the writing necessary to make my point. That goes both ways. Long or short, just do what needs to be done. x. Don't tell me about my character; I've been following Bart Allen lore for years now. If I haven't admitted I don't know something then please, don't try to teach me. Chances are, you're just going to piss me off. That being said, I prefer to stick to Young Justice/Comic/Animated Bart and Teen Titans. I love him as Impulse but if the arc requires him to be Kid Flash then I will do what needs to be done. As for new 52? That version of him is still new to me and not completely my favorite. Again, I will do what needs to be done. This includes Flash!Bart as well. x. Relationships; They are not a big thing to me when it comes to role-playing. I don't hate it... I just don't need it. If however, you manage to make it something I'd like to keep in role-playing then, congrats. It is nice to have, just not necessary. I do have preferences. For instance, I am a big fan of BartxRose, BartxCissie, or BartxJaime. I'm willing to change these if the right character makes the story interesting. x. Usual role-playing rules applied; If you don't know these then you shouldn't be role-playing. Plain and simple.

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