News item | 07-06-2023 | 17:11
Today Minister Bruins Slot sent the return right for the Senate to the House of Representatives. With this right of return, the Senate can make changes to bills and then send them back to the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives must then decide whether it agrees with the change. After that, the House of Representatives can definitively adopt the bill.
Minister Bruins Slot: “This proposal maintains the power of the Senate to reject a bill. But it can decide for each bill whether it wants to exchange its right of rejection for the right of return. As a result, the role of the Senate within the parliamentary system is better utilized”.
Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate cannot currently amend bills. It can only adopt or reject a bill in its entirety. The right of return changes this. It is one of the recommendations of the Remkes State Commission, which has advised on democracy and the parliamentary system. The return right gives the Senate its own instrument to make a concrete contribution to better legislation. In this way, the position of the Senate is better utilized and the legislative process and implementation are improved. Because this concerns a constitutional amendment, both the Senate and the House of Representatives must agree to the proposal twice: first by a simple majority and after parliamentary elections by a two-thirds majority.
If the House of Representatives agrees to this, then a package of three constitutional amendments will be submitted to the Senate, all three of which relate to the role of the Senate. Earlier, the House of Representatives already agreed with the bill to deal with the second reading of constitutional amendments from now on in a joint meeting of both Houses (i.e. not in both Houses separately with a 2/3 majority, but in both Houses together with a 2/3 majority ). The House of Representatives also agreed to the proposal to elect half of the Senate every six years (still staged via the provincial councils, of course), and after three years the other half for six years.