SECTION VII. Introduction, Discussion, Passage and Promulgation of the Laws
Chapter I
Article 133
Any bill may originate in either of the two Chambers on the proposal of any of its members or by the Executive Power through the intermediary of its Ministers, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 6 of Article 85 and Article 86.
The initiative of the Executive Power shall be required for any bill specifying tax exemptions or fixing minimum wages or prices for the purchase of the products or goods of public or private enterprise.
The Legislative Power may not increase the tax exemptions nor the minimums proposed by the Executive Power for wages and prices, nor may it lower the proposed maximum prices.
Chapter II
Article 134
If the Chamber in which a bill originated approves it, it shall be transmitted to the other in order that, after discussion therein, it may be approved, amended, amplified, or rejected.
Article 135
If either of the two Chambers to which a bill has been sent returns it with additions or objections and the Chamber which sent it agrees to them, it shall give notice to that effect and the bill shall be sent to the Executive Power; but if the latter Chamber is not in accord and insists on maintaining the bill in the form in which it was originally submitted, it may in that case request a joint session of both Chambers and, according to the result of the discussion, there shall be adopted whatever may be decided by a two-thirds vote, which may modify the divergent bills or even approve a new one.
Article 136
If the Chamber to which a bill has been sent has no objection to offer, it shall approve it and by merely notifying the Chamber which submitted it, shall submit it to the Executive Power in order that it may be published.
Bills which have not passed both Chambers in the same Legislature shall be considered as having originated in the Chamber which last passed them.
Article 137
If, upon receipt of a bill, the Executive Power has objections or observations to make, the bill shall be returned with them to the General Assembly within the prescribed period of ten days.
Article 138
When a bill of law is returned by the Executive Power with objections or observations, total or partial, the General Assembly shall be convoked and it shall be as three-fifths of the total of the members present of each of the Chambers decide, who may incorporate [ajustarse] the observations or reject them, maintaining the bill adopted.
Article 139
If thirty days have passed from the first convocation without reaching an express rejection of the observations of the Executive Power, they will be considered accepted.
Article 140
If the Chambers in joint session disapprove the bill returned by the Executive Power it shall be considered null and void for the time being and may not again be presented until the following Legislature.
Article 141
In all cases of the reconsideration of a bill returned by the Executive, the voting shall be by name and by “yes” and “no”, and both the names and reasons of those voting, as well as the objections or observations of the Executive Power, shall be immediately published in the press.
Article 142
Whenever a bill passed by one Chamber shall be rejected by the other at the beginning, it shall be considered as null and void for the time being and may not again be introduced until the following period of the Legislature.
Chapter III
Article 143
If the Executive Power has no objection to offer to a bill which has been submitted to it, it shall immediately give notice to that effect, the bill being thereby approved, and promulgated without delay.
Article 144
If the Executive does not return a bill within the ten days prescribed in Article 137, it shall become law and shall be complied with as such, the Chamber which sent it having the right to demand such action if this is not done.
Article 145
When a bill returned by the Executive Power with objections or observations has been considered by the Chambers in joint session and has again been approved, it shall be considered as finally passed and shall be communicated to the Executive Power, which shall promulgate it immediately without further objections.
Chapter IV
Article 146
When a law has been passed, the following formula shall be invariably used for its promulgation:
“The Chamber of Senators and the Chamber of Representatives of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, met in General Assembly, decree:”
