After an extensive debate on adding amendments to the bylaws, the Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously approved the Omnibus Governing Documents Amendment during Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Chief of staff Karen Borglund authored senate bill 145-23, which clarified language to existing bylaws. It also changed processes, including having the president and vice president-elect announce executive officer nominees and the proposed budget at a senate meeting at least one week before it will be voted on. 

The 2026-27 budget was the only item of new business during Tuesday night’s meeting. 

For nearly an hour, little to no discussions were held on the changes SB 145-23 would bring, but rather surrounding amendments senators proposed to the omnibus.  

Before voting on the bill, senator Moy Valdez moved to amend SB 145-23, requiring the allocations committee chair to notify “all account holders” of any changes made to the proposed budget once it was published, as well as the justification behind the changes, during the one-week grace period before the budget is passed. 

Senator Sabeeth Mirza cautioned against amending the bill, citing concerns over a lack of discussion with the funding department, as well as with chief financial officer Avery Horton and CFO designee Jackson Alexander.

Horton said after the budget is passed, she will work with chief programming officer Ali Edmonds to send out letters to committees and assemblies informing them of any changes to their budget. Horton also said that since the budget is constantly changing before it is officially passed, sending out letters to committees and assemblies would open up the CFO and the allocations committee to a “week of hell.” 

In response, Valdez said that during the previous budget reallocations in February, programming groups questioned senators on changes made to their respective budgets. 

“We didn’t know what to tell [the programming groups],” Valdez said. “This [amendment] is just specifying that in that one-week grace period, the allocations committee should, to make sure that we are transparent and notify all groups that had changes [to their] proposed budget and the justification [for those changes].” 

Horton said she had not been contacted by programming groups regarding budget changes during the previous budget allocation. Ultimately, senators voted 2-10 to reject amending SB 145-23, with senators Zehran Muqtadir and Valdez voting in favor of the changes. 

Senator Muqtadir then moved to amend SB 145-23 again, to require that any proposed changes to the elections code must go through a minimum of a one-week grace period before being introduced to the senate. 

Edmonds raised concerns about the executive cabinet being unable to review the proposed amendment for a longer period of time. 

“We think it is a bit hypocritical for changes to be made and for us not to have a one-week grace period,” Edmonds said. 

Following the debate, senators voted to reject amending SB 145-23 once again, with senators Jad Kilani, Kevin Hoang, Muqtadir and Valdez voting in favor of the changes.

Senators also unanimously voted to table SB 145-24, a bill to approve the 2026-27 fiscal budget. Alexander presented the bill and recommended tabling the item due to upcoming meetings with the Recreational Club Council and Student Basic Needs.

The next senate meeting will vote on the fiscal year 2026-27 USG budget and feature the state of the USG.