SECTION 38

(1) (a) Bills submitted to the National Assembly by the President of the Republic shall be tabled before the Bureau of the House for onward transmission by the President of the National Assembly to the Chairmen's Conference which shall rule on their admissibility and shall refer them to a General Committee. Members of the National Assembly shall then be informed of its content during a plenary sitting. (b) Private Members' bills and draft resolutions initiated by Members of the National Assembly shall be submitted in writing. They shall be forwarded to the President of the National Assembly for onward transmission to the Chairmen's Conference which shall rule on their admissibility and refer them to a General Committee. (2) Government or Private Members' bills may deal only with matters defined in Article 26 of the Constitution. (3) The Chairmen's Conference shall rule on the admissibility of texts. In the case of disagreement between the Government and the Chairmen's Conference or of any doubt as to the admissibility of a text, the President of the Republic, the President of the National Assembly or 1/3 (one third) of the Members of the National Assembly shall refer the matter to the Constitutional Council which shall make a ruling thereon. (4) Pursuant to Article 18 (3) (a) of the Constitution, no bill or amendment introduced by a Member may be admissible which, if passed, would result in the reduction of public funds or an increase of public charges without a corresponding reduction in other expenditure or the grant of equivalent new supply of funds. (5) Government and Private Members' bills and draft resolutions shall be distributed to Members of the National Assembly, and shall be referred 19 to the relevant Committee for consideration as provided for under sub-section (1) above. They shall be registered in a general roll and numbered in the order in which they arrive, with an entry indicating the action taken thereon.