Passed Executive Affairs Act, 2021

The Speaker or Chairperson may assign this to a thread that has passed their respective house's legislative process.
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EUKBICR

EUKBICR

The Devil
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Oct 25, 2020
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A MOTION

To enact the bill "An Act to Regulate the Affairs of the Executive, Reform Ministries and Provide for a Specific Legislative Mechanism to Establish Them"
Introduced into the Senate of the Union of Democratic States by Glaciosia on the 30th of December, 2021
As follows:
​

BELIEVING the Ministries Act to be in need of reform;
UNDERSTANDING the complexities of the Executive Branch;
IT IS HEREBY ENACTED BY THE SENATE:


Section 1. Short Title
1. The short title for this act is "Executive Affairs Act"
Section 2. Executive Duties and Privileges
1. The President may establish programs for the betterment of the Union.
2. The President and Ministers shall answer in a timely manner questions posed by Citizens regarding Executive actions.
a. This shall not extend to sensitive information related to an ongoing investigation, foreign affairs or military issues. This protection shall be balanced against public interest.
b. The Supreme Court may order the Executive to release information. Failure to follow said order can result in removal from office by the Senate.
3. The President shall produce a report on the state of the Union and the Executive at least once a month.

Section 3. Executive Orders and Policies
1. Executive Orders must be published on the regional forums.
2. Executive Orders issued by a Minister or their Designee shall be labelled as Ministerial Orders, and state the source of their authority and which Ministry issued them in their text.
3. Should an area of legislative discretion be delegated by law to the President, this area of discretion may be designated by law as one to be regulated by an Executive Policy.
a. The President may create, amend or abolish such a policy by an Executive Order.

Section 4. Ministries
1. The President may establish, abolish, and alter Ministries by Executive Order.
a. The President shall establish the extent of the authority granted to the Ministry through the Order establishing it.
b. The President may not abolish or alter a Ministry established by law unless this is provided for in the law establishing it.
2. Ministers shall be appointed to lead a specific Ministry.
3. Deputy Ministers may be appointed by Ministers, and may act in their place when their Ministers are unable to act and/or oversee specific departments or programs of the Ministries .
4. Ministries may appoint Citizens as Ministerial Assistants to assist in Ministerial work.
5. The President shall maintain a publicly available listing of Ministries, their roster and duties, and provide for a process of application to available positions within those Ministries.

Section 5. Establishment of Ministries
1. All Ministries currently extant shall remain so until they are abolished or altered.

Section 6. Provisions
1. UL-003, “The Ministries Act” is hereby repealed.
2. The establishment by law of any Ministry shall be conducted by an amendment to Section 4 of this statute.
 
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As I have stated previously, I believe the ministries act is outdated, overcomplicated and underinclusive. This bill intends to remedy that.
 
As I mentioned before, I have reservations with upending the legislation we already have in place. I ask Glaciosia to clarify his position believing the UL-003 Ministries Act to be outdated and in need of reform.

I think UL-003 works nicely with the Constitution and elaborates the role of Ministries with the Executive. It expands on the institutions, how they can be legitimately created, the powers which can be endowed on Ministers for the smooth running of their respective area of interest, and ways in which Ministers can be held accountable.
It clears up potential misconceptions on who has the authority to appoint deputy ministers and whether positions can be held simultaneously. I see no major contentions in the present law.

What meaningful reform is being made? I'll give credit where credit is due, I acknowledge that the role of the Supreme Court has been expanded upon in this Bill, however there is nothing meaningful in this reform. Ministers were already held accountable beforehand, as entailed in Section V of UL-003, mandating monthly ministerial reports and timely responses to questions posed by UDS citizens. And the Senate has always enjoyed the power to remove Ministers by vote of no confidence in the event of negligence of duty by the concerning Minister.

So I presently see no need for reform, however I am open to have my mind changed.
 
Section 2.1 fills what I have believed to be somewhat of a hole in the legal structure of our region, with not firm legal justification for the president to establish new programs without special legislation, something they have historically always done.

Section 3 is basically completely novel, and serves to seperate any sort of binding policies established through the designated authority of the legislature from internal business of the executive, ensure transparency etc.

The bill also redefines the relationship between ministers and ministries , to better reflect actual practice and common sense.

It also, as I work to reform the currently legislatively established ministries , will incorporate all of them
 
Debate is now closed. Since no amendments have been proposed, we move directly to vote. Those in favour May say Aye, those against may say No.
 
Aye, with the hope that "MinisterialMinisterial" in Section 4(4) is fixed to just say "Ministerial"
 
Ayes to the right - 3
Noes to the left - 1
I think the Ayes have it, the Ayes have it the bill is passed.
 
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