Title CMS, Senate Rules

Section 1. Requirement of Fiscal Impact Notes. Fiscal impact notes shall be required for all bills and amendments, other than those excepted as provided in section four hereof, which would substantially affect the revenues or expenses, or both, of any county, city, town, village,…

§ 2. Sufficiency and Contents of Fiscal Impact Notes. Fiscal impact notes shall be deemed sufficient for purposes of this Joint Rule if prepared in conformity with this section. A. Scope of fiscal estimates. Fiscal impact upon political subdivisions shall be estimated on the basi…

§ 3. Procedure. A. (i) The Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly shall each designate a person in such officer's respective house to examine each bill in such house, without regard to its house of origin, for the purpose of ascertaining whether a fisca…

§ 4. Exceptions. A fiscal impact note shall not be required for a bill: A. subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Legislative Law; B. requested by a county, city, town or village in accordance with the provisions of paragraph two of subdivision (b) of section two of Artic…

§ 5. Effect of Inaccuracy. If the estimate or estimates contained in a fiscal impact note are inaccurate, such inaccuracy shall not affect, impair or invalidate such bill.

§ 6. Application. The provisions of this Joint Rule shall apply to bills and amendments proposed for introduction at the nineteen hundred eighty-five regular legislative session and permanently thereafter.

Section 1. Committee on Conference. The Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly may jointly convene a Joint Committee on Conference to consider and report upon substantially similar but not identical legislation that has passed each House of the Legislat…

Section 1. Budget Consideration Schedule. In accordance with section 54-a of the Legislative Law, within ten days of the submission of the budget by the Governor pursuant to article VII of the Constitution, the Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly sha…

§ 2. Joint Budget Conference Committee. In accordance with section 54-a of the Legislative Law, within ten days of the submission of the budget by the Governor pursuant to article VII of the Constitution, the Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly shall…

Section 1. Joint Advisory Board on Broadcast of State Government Proceedings. The Temporary President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly shall convene a bi-partisan, bi-cameral joint advisory board to oversee current and future broadcast of New York State Government pr…

§ 2. Duties of the Joint Advisory Board. The joint advisory board shall engage in such activities as it deems necessary for the preparation and formulation of a report to review the efficacy of current programming and explore future expansion of such to include additional legisla…

RULE I THE PRESIDENT

RULE X SENATORS

Section 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 Se…

§ 10. District Offices. All Senators will receive funds to maintain a district office. Rents of district offices shall be based on a cost formula of office rental costs of an equal class of commercial office space based on the prevailing rent in the community where the Senator ch…

§ 11. Allocation for Community Projects. Each conference shall receive an allocation from any amounts to be awarded by the Senate for community projects, capital spending, local assistance or other similar allocations for member driven initiatives. The Majority Coalition shall re…

§ 2. Quorum. a. A majority of all the Senators elected shall constitute 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…

§ 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. Wh…

§ 4. Order and decorum. a. Prior to the order of business, the presiding officer shall ask those in the chamber to rise and pledge allegiance to the flag. Those in attendance shall remain standing during the daily invocation and until asked to take their seats by the presiding of…

§ 5. Presentation of papers. a. A Senator presenting a paper shall endorse the same with his or her name and a brief written statement of the subject of its contents. b. When the reading of a paper is called for, except petitions, and the same is objected to by any Senator, it sh…

§ 6. Call of the Senate. For the purpose of securing the attendance of Senators, a call of the Senate may be ordered at any time, but such call shall not be in order after the voting on any question has begun, nor after the third reading of a bill has been completed, nor after th…

§ 7. Absences. In all cases of absence of Senators during the sessions of the Senate, the Temporary President or a majority of the Senators elected may take such measures as they deem necessary to secure the presence of the absentees, and in addition to suspension for a given per…

§ 8. Staffing. All Senators shall receive the same base allocation of funds for staffing their offices. Additional funding for responsibilities associated with committees and leadership positions shall be allocated within amounts available for committee and leadership staff; such…

§ 9. Resources. All Senators shall have equitable access to the resources of the Senate, including, but not limited to, office supplies, communications and audio visual resources, mail privileges subject to published guidelines, technology, including both hardware and software, a…

RULE XI SENATE CHAMBERS

Section 1. Open doors. The doors of the Senate shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy.

§ 2. Admission to floor. Persons not members of the Senate, or officers or employees thereof, shall be admitted to the floor of the Senate only as follows: a. The Governor, his or her secretary and messenger. b. The members and Clerk of the Assembly, and clerks and messengers of …

RULE XII SUSPENSION OF THE RULES

Section 1. Resolution to amend the Senate Rules. No amendment to the Senate Rules shall be considered by the Senate unless a resolution for such amendment, together with a memorandum specifying the purpose of the proposed amendment, suspension, or rescission, shall be introduced …

§ 2. Motion for Chamber Consideration. a. It shall be in order for any Senator, who is the sponsor of a bill that is on the Senate's Third Reading Calendar, to move for chamber consideration of such bill. Such motion shall require an affirmative vote of three-fifths of members el…

§ 3. Petition for Consideration. a. The sponsor of any bill may file with the Journal Clerk, no less than forty-five days after a bill has been referred to a committee, a petition requesting that such bill be moved to the calendar for consideration. Such petition shall be filed w…

RULE XIII ADJOURNMENT

Section 1. The Senate shall not adjourn for more than two days without the consent of the Assembly.

RULE XIV GUIDELINES FOR A SYSTEM OF INTERNAL CONTROLS

Section 1. Pursuant to Article 6 of the Legislative Law as enacted by the New York state governmental accountability, audit and internal control act of 1987, the following guidelines for a System of Internal Control are hereby established: a. all financial transactions shall be e…

§ 2. Expenditure reporting. The Temporary President shall establish a system of expenditure reporting whereby expenditures of the Senate shall be reported by such categories as he or she shall determine. Reports of expenditures by such system shall be published in a form to be pr…

RULE XV FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Section 1. a. Publication of records relating to Senate legislative and administrative records. Recognizing that legislative records available by request under the "freedom of information law" are of important public interest, the Senate shall make available through a searchable …

RULE XVI TELEVISING SENATE SESSION

Section 1. Any televised proceedings of sessions of the Senate shall be made available for statewide television broadcast, pursuant to the following: a. All televised proceedings of the Senate session shall be unedited, except that only accredited news organizations, educational …

§ 2. The televised proceedings of sessions of the Senate as provided for in section one of this Rule, in any form, shall be deemed the property of the New York State Senate. PERMANENT JOINT RULES OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY

Section 1. The Lieutenant Governor of the State shall be President of the Senate, but shall have only a casting vote therein.

RULE II SENATE COMPOSITION

Section 1. The Senate shall be composed of three conferences; the Republican Conference, the Democratic Conference and the Independent Democratic Conference. Designation of the leaders and members of each conference shall be filed in the Senate Journal upon the approval of the Ma…

RULE III 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 Temporary President, by resolution adopted upon the vote of a majority of the members of the Senate elected, and who shall preside, or designate …

§ 2. He or she shall appoint and designate the Officers of the Senate, the chair, vice-chair and members of all committees and sub-committees, except when the Senate shall otherwise order.

§ 3. The Chair of the Committee on Rules shall be the Majority Coalition Conference Leader with the greater number of Conference members.

§ 4. He or she shall appoint, in conjunction with the Speaker of the Assembly and the Legislative Librarian, an Assistant Legislative Librarian, to have charge and custody of all legislative documents, as defined in this section, who shall be responsible for collecting, numbering…

§ 5. He or she shall represent the Senate, or engage legal representation 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 …