That gives us two bills with supporters; could we have as many as four viable bills?! I can't wait! For those who do have co-sponsors, please PM me a final draft of your bill so I can include them in a later post.
EDIT: Re: filibusters. For those who don't know, filibusters are not part of the US Constitution; they're a procedural rule in Congress. I prefer to interfere as little as possible with solely congressional stuff, but for something that could be this big, I'm going to ask everyone to vote. If Filibusters, as I noted above, do go into effect, they can only affect bills in the final draft stage. Each party would have to choose a leader with the filibuster power as well. Here is the official policy, as I see it.
1. Every "party" (Independents, Democrats, and Republicans) would have to choose a representative. You can work the process out amongst yourselves, whether it's through election or through just picking the best sort of person. I recognize the danger in making the independents work together, and I'm hoping it might eventually lead into the coalescing of a bonafide third party, like Socialists or something, as those who don't agree are "forced" into another party. We'll see how that plays out.
2. The party leader would then have the power to exercise a "filibuster" on a specific portion of a bill. The bill's authors would either have to remove or amend that portion of the bill or a super majority (2/3rds of the Senators) would vote to override the filibuster.
3. This power can only be invoked once per Session (or six month update) per party. They may filibuster one and only one bill.
4. Choosing a leader for each party. If you don't want to vote on it, I'd probably give it the Senator with the most seniority (or the person who's been a Senator the longest). This would be, for your information, Kenzington, D-NY for the Democrats (derahan) and Mount, R-NY for the Republicans (NotFuchs). I'm not sure who it would be for the independents; very few of them have been active.
If anybody has specific objections or suggestions to this mechanic, please do let me know. We won't implement this until everybody's had a chance to look at it. Even if all three bills get co-sponsors (and I think only one has?), we'll still hold off on actual voting for bills until we sort this out.
Actual procedure for filibusters:
1. Bills are in final draft and due to be voted on.
2. Party leader says "I filibuster a vote for such and such a bill until such and such is taken care of."
3. We vote to override the filibuster (or not.) Bills may also be withdrawn for consideration if it gets too nasty by the original co-authors. (Both must agree).
4. After filibusters are dealt with, we go to normal voting procedure.
So, please vote Aye or Nay on filibusters. Bill writers, go ahead and work getting sponsors if you need them. Until filibusters are resolved, we will not continue with voting on bills.