NEWS 28 - Senator Joey Rigg of North Lorray, has officially been stripped of his committee assignments as part of his ongoing agreement with Senate leadership to remain in power until 2025, when he must not seek reelection. As Rigg prepares to face his sexual assault accuser, he will be heavily removed from Senate proceedings and he will not be eligible for these committee assignments.

The committees he was apart of included the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The Senate Ethics Committee, and the Senate Task Force Committee. These committee assignments would require the Senator to leave the country for meetings related to foreign issues including attacks on allies, and other democratic nations. This would require he violate the agreement he made with Senate leadership and House Senate Leadership.

"I have officially stepped down from my roles in the multiple committees I am apart of and will help lead the appointment of the next Senator to take over those three committee assignments," said Senator Joey Rigg. "While I have diligently and honorably served to better these committees, I know as part of the agreement I made with Senate Leadership, so that I could keep my Senate seat until 2025. I need to step down to focus on the final year of my term and hope to carry out my final duties as a Senator until November 2025."

Stripping him of committee assignments will ultimately render Sen. Rigg powerless, as he just sits in a seat. The only remaining power he now has is voting power, but since he is a minority party, he doesn't have much power there either.

"We have decided the best thing to do to ensure he has not official business reason to leave the country, is to strip him of any committee assignments," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Rodham. "He will now have no reason to leave the country. Any committee assignments that need to be filled, can be filled by him, but they would need approval of both the Senate Majority and Senate Minority leaders, which both myself and Senate Majority leader Larry Cofelt are unlikely to approve."

Committee assignments are generally assigned to all Senators based on their experience and are given on a Senator-by-Senator basis, and usually higher level and ranking Senators get better committee assignments, usually involving foreign relations committees and other assignments that require more Senate experience.

Now that Rigg no longer has any committee assignments, the Senate can now effectively open Rigg's seat up for election in 2025, without contest. Nox City Mayor Thomas Brosnik is currently seeking to win Rigg's seat. He has remained fairly popular in polls and many Brosnik supporters hope that they can win an uncontested victory.