In a second attempt, the National Government, headed by the Ministry of Health, submitted to Congress his health reform project. Although the text presented contains fewer articles than the one rejected in April, the initiative maintains the same fundamental changes that are sought to be implemented in the health system.
With the fall of the original project, for this second round it was considered whether the article should be filed as a statutory law, which ultimately did not happen, since It will be processed in the Legislature as an ordinary lawBut what does this mean?
The first thing to understand is that in Colombia there are three types of laws: organic, statutory and ordinary. In this case, we will focus on the last two.
Statutory laws are those that regulate fundamental rights, states of exception, mechanisms for citizen participation, the regime of political parties and the administration of justice. As explained on the Congress website, these have a higher category than other types of laws and are established a special procedure for its issuance due to its legal importance.
For the approval of a statutory bill, an absolute majority is required, as well as a prior review by the Constitutional Court. In addition, Its process involves four debates (two in the House and two in the Senate)) and in order to obtain approval, they must be done in the same legislative session.
(See: National Government resubmits health reform bill)
Laws
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(More news: Were health sector stakeholders taken into account in the new reform?)
Ordinary laws are those that do not address any of the issues mentioned above and have a simpler process. Although they also require four debates to pass the test in Congress, Its discussion must be completed in a maximum of two legislative periods.
In this sense, when a bill completes its process in the Corporation’s committee where the process began in the first legislature, will continue its course in the next one in the state in which it is found.
Furthermore, for the approval of this type of law, it is only required that they be voted affirmatively by half plus one of those attending the session. This is provided that half plus one of the members of the Commission or the respective Plenary are present.
(Read more: Former ministers and vice ministers of health reaffirm concerns about the reform)
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