The legislative desk
| Offices | State lower house, state senate, US House, US Senate |
|---|---|
| Where | Replaces the hub as the player's home screen while the seat is held |
| Premium | Suggested talking points, the bill-drafting tool and cosponsor requests |
A member holds one seat in one chamber and has no executive branch to run. A seat can be won by starting a career on one of the four legislative start tiles, which places the player in the first seat of that chamber the player's party already holds, or by winning election to a seat through the Seat Book (see Races and primaries). Holding a second office ends the first: winning another seat gives up the old one, and winning the governorship or the presidency ends the legislative career in favour of the new office. The desk has the same layout for all four seats; only the chamber, its committees and the powers available to the member change.
The desk
The desk is built from a set of cards. At the top, This Month lists what is due that month and holds the button that plays it. Below that, a net approval rating tracks the member's standing over time. A papers card shows the latest political news with a link to the full political scene (see Papers and NPC events). A chart of both chambers of the body the member sits in shows every seat and who holds it, with names drawn from the real record for Congress and from the state's own political figures for a state chamber. Further cards show the chamber's business for the month, every one of its committees and the member's place on them, and the member's own bill, along with a running history of the member's time in office.
The month's event
Every month produces one piece of business for the member to respond to, drawn from one of four situations:
- A floor speech on a bill that is up for debate
- A hearing or a bill review from a committee the member sits on
- A press question about a local bill, or about something the President has done
- A situation in the member's own district, or the whole state for a senator
The player answers in their own words, and the era's voters react to it exactly as they react to a governor's or a President's month. Their reaction moves the member's approval, and, where a voter reacts strongly, the member's recognition; a bigger seat, such as a US Senate seat, reaches more people than a smaller one, such as a state assembly seat.
The docket and the member's bill
The chamber's calendar holds a handful of active bills at a time. On each one the member records an intention to vote yes, no or to abstain, and can choose to speak on it, which brings it up as that month's floor business. A member can also have one bill of their own working its way through the chamber: it can be written up directly or turned into a full bill from a short instruction using the drafting tool, and it is then sent to the fitting committee. Other members of the chamber can be asked to cosponsor it, and enough support helps it get reported out for a vote. Invitations to join a committee arrive over time, more often the better known and better regarded the member is among their own party in the chamber.
Standing with the chamber
Both the member's own party and, more mildly, the opposing party notice how the member votes and speaks, and their opinions of the member shift accordingly (see The party machine). The desk does not track amendments or a formal whip count, and the papers never report how a member actually voted.