Legislative Agenda

Intent

To ensure that all elected representatives of the people in the legislature have an equal opportunity to speak on important topics and to introduce legislation.

Proposal

In every legislative session, the legislative agenda shall be set by the representatives.

To set the agenda, each representative shall have a turn to speak for one block of time. All such blocks of time shall be of equal duration. During the block of time, the representative may address the assembly and propose one or more topics for discussion, or introduce legislation.

When a representative proposes one or more topics for discussion, the topic is added to the agenda in the discussion section. When a representative introduces legislation, the representative’s name and legislative intent are added to the agenda, and a copy of the proposed legislation is circulated to all representatives.

A representative may yield their time back to the assembly, for example if they feel that their topic has already been adequately addressed by earlier speakers. A representative may yield their time to another representative.

At the end of the representative’s block of time, if the representative proposed any topic or legislative intent, a vote is taken to determine the level of interest in each proposal. This vote does not enact anything into law. The number of yes votes are recorded next to each proposal.

After all representatives had a turn to speak, the items on the agenda are then sorted by most votes to least votes.

The legislature then proceeds to address each item on the agenda, in order, on each day of business during the legislative session.

Discussion

In the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives decides when the legislature is in session and when it’s not. Famously in October of 2025, Speaker Mike Johnson kept the House of Representatives out of session for weeks claiming that they “did their job” already by passing some budget for the Senate to approve. However, making a budget is not the ONLY job of the legislature and there are other things that representatives want to talk about and vote on. But, with a system that allows one person to control whether the House of Representatives is in session, none of the representatives can do anything about it. Even to change the system they would need to convene and if the speaker doesn’t call a session then they don’t even convene to change the rules.

Allowing each representative time to propose a topic for discussion or a proposed legislation or legislative intent means that each representative has an opportunity to be heard and that the legislature works on items that have the most interest first.