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I thought it might be a good idea to publish Acts in their entirety in game as well as on the Congress Spreadsheet, to make things easier and more visible. I'll link to these articles at the bottom of all future Speaker articles.

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Congressional Procedure Act
Proposed by Addaway, Enacted 9th June 2015

Aim: To consolidate and make clear all of our existing law and convention that governs the way that congress acts and interacts with the CP and his ministers.

a. The passage of this bill will repeal the Speaker Act and all associated procedure.

Part 1 - The Speaker

a. Congress will maintain an elected Speaker to run the legislative process and communicate efficiently with the CP.
i. Election: The Speaker will be elected by a first past the post vote of fellow congress members. Congress Members will have 24hrs to nominate themselves in the event of a Speaker election being triggered. A 24hr vote will then follow, administered by the Dictator.
ii.The Speaker will remain in office until he leaves Congress, resigns the position, or loses a motion of no confidence.
b.Role within Congress: The Speaker will be charged with administering all votes and debates within Congress, following the procedure set out in Part 2.
i.The Speaker will facilitate communication between Congress members and the executive and try to ensure this communication is efficient.
ii.The Speaker will have an obligation to act in an impartial manner towards all congress members in the PMs and during official IRC meetings.
c.Role outside of Congress: The Speaker will communicate with the executive to ascertain any upcoming proposals that will be sent to congress, and hold the executive to account to the best of his ability.
i. The CP will have an obligation to keep the Speaker informed of developments in government policy in more detail than can be easily communicated to the whole house.
d. The Speaker may appoint up to two deputies to assist him with the running of the house. These deputies can be subject to binding motions of no confidence in the same way as the Speaker and can exercise any powers of the Speaker that the Speaker allows.
e. The CP, Dictator and all government ministers are excluded from becoming the Speaker, with the exception of the Ministry of Entertainment.
f. Deputy Ministers may hold a Deputy Speaker position, but senior government ministers cannot.

Part 2 - Proposals, Debates and Voting

A. Legislative Process

a. Congress members and Government ministers have the right to make proposals.
b. Proposals should be submitted to the Speaker via PM prior to introducing it to the whole house.
c. The Speaker will publish any proposal put to him, and ask for congressional sponsors for it:
d. A proposal must gain sponsors equivalent to 15% of the current sitting Congress, excluding the Speaker, who cannot Sponsor proposals. Proposals from the CP or his nominated ministers do not require sponsors.
e.Congress members cannot sponsor their own proposal.
f.Once a proposal reaches the required number of sponsors, it will begin its formal journey through Congress, the details of which will be governed by the category the proposal was submitted under.

B. Legislative Process: Bills

a.Definition: Bills are the most complex proposal that can be made, as metagame documents that govern how congress runs itself, and its interaction with the Executive. The contents of Acts should be taken as binding, and should be followed. However, a common sense rule should always be followed in the event that following the procedure of an Act would result in an unjust or unreasonable action.
b.Bills should receive an initial 24 hours debate on the general principles of the Bill presented.
c. After this time has elapsed a 24hr vote will be held to ascertain whether congress wants to proceed with the Bill.
i. Concurrently to this vote, Congress people should put forward any amendments to the Bill they would like to see adopted; by PMing the Speaker the text of the amendment(s).
d.If the bill receives a simple majority aye vote at the first stage, the amendments will then be debated for 24 hours and a 24 hour vote on them will follow. If the bill does not receive a majority on the first vote, it will be thrown out.
e.Following this, a 48hr vote on the final bill will be held.

C. Legislative Process: Laws

a. Definition: A Law is a proposal made to congress that would've been voted on in game prior to the Dictatorship module. This will include all new MPPs, NEs, Impeachment and Donate Laws
b. Once Laws have achieved the necessary congressional sponsors they will be put to a debate lasting for a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 72 hours. The debate period should be increased or decreased by the Speaker depending on the complexity of the proposal, or the amount of debate surrounding it.
c. Following the completion of the debate, a 24 hour vote will be held.

D. Legislative Process: Motions

a. Definition: Motions are statements that can be tabled to have congress express an opinion. These are non-binding unless otherwise stated in legislation.
b. Motions should be put to the Speaker before being proposed, who will bring them to the house.
c. Motions will be subject to a 12 hour debate and then a 24hr vote.
Debates should be started between the hours of 7am and 5pm. If this is not possible then the debate length may be increased by a maximum of 6 hours to ensure that debate is open at sensible hours.

E. Emergency Proposals

a. The CP has the power to declare any proposal submitted to congress from his government an emergency, on grounds of National Security
b. Proposals can be declared an emergency on grounds of National Security, and the CP must clearly explain his reasoning to congress.
c. Emergency proposals will take priority over all ongoing debates in the General Congress PMs. If the Speaker or his deputy is not available to deal with suspending votes and debates, the CP may do so.
d. Declaring a proposal an emergency has the effect of halving all required debate and vote times. If the proposal is a Bill, then only a single vote on the exact bill will take place, after 24 hours debate period.

Part 3 - Congress Members

A. Suspension of a Congress Member

a. Any Congress member may petition the speaker and move that another congress member be suspended from congress for the remaining duration of the term. There are two possible grounds for moving this course of action:
i. Clear reasoning and evidence that the congress member in question, in the view of the proposer, represents a serious risk to the eUK and its community; that they should not be allowed to wield any kind of influence on the governing of the eUK through congress.
ii. Clear evidence that the congress member in question has been abusive or intimidating to another congress member or government minister in a way that is wholly unacceptable in official congressional communication.
b. If, in the Speaker’s view, the motion can be justified as a reasonable and credible proposal, he will publish it and invite sponsors for it.
c. If the Speaker decides that a motion is not reasonable, he must publicly state why he believes that to be the case and give appropriate reasoning.
d. In order for this motion to be voted on, it must be sponsored by congressmen equivalent 33% of the sitting congress.
e. When this threshold is reached, an immediate 24hr vote of congress members will take place. In order for a congress member to be suspended a 66%+1 majority of those voting must agree, excluding abstentions.

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Votes

Aye - Colin Brown, Rathena Gelc, Aaron Mark Daniels, Appleby, Aultman, BlackDeath 87, Pannonian Nomad, Dzoniy91, WookieO, KawaRO, Marktiello, CrispyDragon, Roachford, Rob the Bruce, Scarfar. (16)

No - dougal4Chaos, Max Blue, King William the Great, BaronChris (4)