New York R 2: Enacts the Rules of the Senate for the 2021-2022 legislative session

Bill Text

Senate Resolution No. 2
Senator STEWART-COUSINSBY:
adopt the Rules of the Senate for the yearsTO
2021-2022
RULES OF THE SENATE
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
2021-2022
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
Temporary 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 Governor. The Temporary President shall exercise such powers and
duties as given by law or these rules during the 2021-2022 session.
§ 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. He or she shall be Chair of the Committee on Rules.
§ 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, 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
employees 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

Legislative 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
include the Rules of the Senate, the Rules of the Assembly, reports of
the Legislature and reports of every legislative committee,
subcommittee, 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.
§ 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 enforcement or defense of any right, privilege or
prerogative 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 or adopted, 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