As we told you in the top segment, the Senate met today – and discussion of the raft of new immigration legislation took the headline. But it was also robustly debated in the Senate, where the social partners and the opposition objected to a number of provisions in the legislation and the haste with which it was pushed through.
When those bills along with the rape bill went to what's called The Committee of the Whole, we saw PUP Senator Lisa Shoman walk out. During that Committee session – the President is supposed to go over every clause of the legislation and invite comments. But, Shoman says he was doing it in chunks instead of going through each individual clause.
She told us that it's against the rules and she was obliged to walk out:
Lisa Shoman - PUP Senator
"This president has taken to the habit of saying, 'Clauses 1 to 16 will be read together.' When I have objected to that procedure being used, the Chairman is now trying - who is the President - to members say that they agree that this can be done. Members have absolutely no power to agree that all the clauses be read together. They standing order is very clear; the purpose of the Committee of the Whole is to consider clause by clause and determine whether there are changes. Senator Lizarraga, Senator Davis, Senator Sylvestre, and myself, we have all made recommendations today for changes in the laws. We cannot run the National Assembly as if it is some friendly society in which we all agree and we say, 'And so say all of us', and everybody shouts 'Aye', not in the Committee of the Whole. If there is to be no democracy on the floor of the Senate, let us at least have democracy in the Committee of the Whole. And so, I have objected to the procedure, I have placed it on the record, and I have walked out of the Committee of the Whole in protest for the way it is being run by the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, who is the President of the Senate."
Jules Vasquez
"How would you answer to the criticism that perhaps the practice is established by convention, and you're being punctilious and semantic?"
Lisa Shoman
"Jules, I may be punctilious and semantic but the law is the law, and we all have to obey the law. The standing orders say 'shall'. It does not say 'may'. He shall call the number of each clause in succession if no amendment is proposed, then he shall put the bill. If an amendment is proposed, it has to be dealt with then and there. I don't take walking out lightly, Marisol. I am disappointed that I had to walk out, but if I remained in there, I would allow myself to be a part of the farce, and that I cannot do."
Shoman says she will write to the president to formalize her objection.
