The changes to Poland's legal system "represent an attack on the vary basis of the functioning of the democratic state," said the statement signed by the heads of the Czech Constitutional, Supreme and Supreme Administrative courts, along with the nation's Supreme Public Prosecutor. The Polish Senate, which like the lower house is comfortably controlled by the ruling conservative Law and Justice party that drafted the bill, faced down opposition senators who demanded they explain why the commission rejected over 130 amendments they had proposed. Besides the power to appoint judges, the bill gives the president influence over them via regulatory power over the Supreme Court.