UOSA President Franz Zenteno presented four congressional bills to the UOSA Undergraduate Student Congress Tuesday evening in the Oklahoma Memorial Union at UOSA Congress’ first general meeting of the fall semester.

One bill heard will create a department within the UOSA executive branch.

This department will give commuter students more of a say in student government, international and area studies senior Zenteno said.

“The Department of Off-Campus Living and Transportation shall provide assistance, service and advocacy within the UOSA executive branch for issues that affect all commuter students, student issues involving sustainability, and parking and transit issues,” according to the bill.

According to the bill, the new department will have coordinators with the Office of Commuter Networking, the Office of Green Initiatives and the Office of Parking and Transit to voice issues relevant to commuter students as well as advocate for sustainable energy projects and voice improvement ideas concerning parking and transit conditions.

The department was active before, but after further examination, the executive branch realized the department never really existed in the student code, Zenteno said.

“We want to make it legal … the Department of Off-Campus Living and Transportation will advocate for a better parking facilities,” he said.

UOSA Congress passed the bill through consent without objection.

In other business, UOSA Congress passed the remaining four bills authored by Zenteno and a bill authored by UOSA Chair Brett Stidham to correct the $650 funding appropriations from the Hispanic American Law Student Association to the Hispanic American Student Association.

Human resources management senior Stidham said it was a mistake in the budgeting process by UOSA Congress for student groups by accidently putting the wrong number on the wrong line in an Excel spreadsheet.

“(The whole process) is really daunting and can get really confusing, really quickly,” Stidham said.

The next UOSA Congress meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 at the union’s Regents Room.