Daily Skiff

Student Government Association House of representatives butted heads with one another in Tuesday's meeting over a bill that would shift authority from the president to the treasurer in appointing the Activities Funding Board.

The bill, which was approved after a lengthy debate, was introduced at Tuesday's meeting to redefine how the AFB's members would be appointed and how openings on the board would be filled. The bill proposed that the members of the board be appointed by the student body treasurer with the consent of the House of Representatives. Currently, the board members are appointed by the president and two permanent members.

The Finance Committee elected to vote on the bill during the House meeting with the intent to move the bill to the House for a vote in the same session. The bill passed in the committee and was presented to the entire House.

Some representatives challenged whether it was necessary to update the funding board. They said the authority to appoint should stay within the president's power.

A heated discussion arose that prompted Justin Brown, student relations chair, to motion to send the bill back to the finance committee, but the motion was ruled out of order by the speaker.

Neeley School of Business representative Marlon Figueroa wrote an amendment to create an appointing board, but his proposal was considered unfriendly by the Finance Committee. Figueroa then retracted his motion to amend.

Another amendment was written by College of Communication representative Joey Parr that stated in the event of a tie in the appointing, the chair of the board and the co-programming chair should vote to break the tie. With that amendment attached, the bill was submitted to the House for a voice vote, in which votes are not formally counted, and passed with four abstentions.

Treasurer Jacob Barnes was satisfied with the bill's passing and said it will be easier to pick people who are more qualified for the position.

Bills that passed unanimously during the meeting are "A Bill to Assign Responsibility for Updating the SBC," which assigns the task to the speaker of the house, and "A Bill to Delineate the Duties of the Student Relations Committee."

"A Resolution to Support the Revision of TCU's Course Policy" also passed unanimously. The resolution supports the review and possible revision of the university's policies regarding scholarship requirements and retaking classes.

Because of time constraints, two bills and a resolution were allocated to be discussed in next week's meeting.

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