At nearly 11 p.m. Wednesday, the Government of the Student Body finally opened its ears to new business after spending the previous four hours debating an in-house bill.

For the second time in as many weeks, the GSB senate spent the majority of its time debating issues concerning by-laws and revisions to the GSB rules committee as opposed to issues directly affecting the student body.

Last week, debate raged regarding the funding to public relations committee for the purchasing of Mardi Gras beads and GSB cups to be used during a GSB tailgate this Saturday before Iowa State’s home football game against the University of Colorado.

This week, the argument began on the selection and duties of a temporary position on the rules committee. But GSB members branched into other in-house criticisms afterward, including bill readability and rules committee loopholes.

Senator Michelle Bohan, graduate student in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, said one of the problems facing the rules committee is the readiness of bills to be read by the senate. Recently, a number of bills have come to the senate poorly written and senators spend meeting time amending the bills’ writing.

“Debate on these bills should be about the meat and bones of the issue, not on small grammatical and wording changes,” Bohan said.

Liberal arts and sciences senator Jonathan Turk, sophomore in political science, took issue with the power of the rules committee. He characterized a loophole in the by-laws as “the ability for the rules committee to send legislation to other GSB committees for their indefinite holding.”

By the close of the meeting, no decision was made on the issue. The bill that started the debate, which proposed drastically changing the makeup of rules committee, was voted down by the senate.

Not to be outdone, off-campus senator Charles Wakefield, said during closing announcements he intended to pursue amendments to rules committee by-laws to make public the selection of the weekly changing temporary position on the senate.

This set off the debate for another couple of hours. Several senators expressed faith in the rules committee members since they were elected by the senate. But, with Wakefield’s amendments, small issues such as making movements and voting rights crept back onto the senate floor.

As debate continued past midnight, it was decided that the issue would be postponed until the senate’s next meeting on Nov. 7.

Other prominent issues resolved in between GSB’s in-house quarrels included the passing of the art on campus bill and a movement toward the completion of special allocations.

After being revised by finance committee after its initial reading by the senate, the 12 “mini-bills” for special student organization funding were voted upon and most were passed. The remaining mini-bills were sent back to finance committee for minuscule issues to be ironed out and voted upon again on Nov. 7.