Substitute amendment


In parliamentary procedure, a substitute amendment is an amendment that replaces a portion or all of the wording in a proposal.

Legislatures

In legislatures, a substitute amendment kills a bill by replacing it if the amendment is passed. Such an amendment has been defined as follows:
A motion, amendment, or entire bill introduced in place of the pending legislative business. Passage of a substitute measure kills the original measure by supplanting it. The substitute also may be amended.

Legislative bodies sometimes have special rules regarding this type of amendment. For example, the Continental Congress had a rule stating: "No new motion or proposition shall be admitted under color of amendment as a substitute for a question or proposition under debate until it is postponed or disagreed to."

Other assemblies

In other deliberative assemblies, using Robert's Rules of Order, a substitute amendment is a form of the motion to amend. It could be debated, modified, and voted on like other amendments.
A substitute can be a sentence, paragraph, section, or article within a motion or resolution, or it can be the entire motion or resolution.
It could be used to improve a poorly worded motion or resolution which helps to pass it.

Procedure

When a substitute is proposed, both the substitute and the wording of the motion that is being substituted for are considered. In this case, the substitute could be amended and the original motion could be amended.
Then a vote is taken on whether to put the substitute in place of the original motion.
This makes it fair for the proponents of the original motion.
If the substitute amendment passed, the main motion as amended would still need to be voted on.