Legislative Snapshots

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Oct 25, 2020
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EVERYDAY NEW'S LEGISLATIVE SNAPSHOT
=What your legislature has been doing for the past month!=

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Everyday News's Legislative Snapshot! Here, we review all legislative items that were passed by both legislative houses and presented to the President. If you want to keep up-to-date on what's going on with Union law, this is the place for you!

As a reminder, here is the general format for each legislative piece:
Legislation: Example
Date signed/vetoed by President: 12/01/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: # of AYES-# of ABSTAINS-# of NAYS {TOTAL # OF VOTES} | SN: # of AYES-# of ABSTAINS-# of NAYS {TOTAL # OF VOTES}
Description of Legislation:


"Legislation" refers to what exactly is being legislated, with a link to either the now passed law or, if a bill was vetoed, a link to when it was presented to the President.

"Date signed/vetoed by President" refers to when the President takes action on a bill. At this point, the bill will either go back to the legislative process, fail, or be passed into law.

"Final Voting Tallies" indicate how the vote for each House went. In order to keep it simple, votes are counted in the votes on the final version of a bill. GA means "General Assembly", and SN means "Senate".

"Description of Legislation: A short summary of the legislation.

The Legislative Snapshot is organized below, with the most recent post being beneath this box. If you need to reference an older Legislative Snapshot without scrolling, check out this table of contents:
 
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DECEMBER 2020 SNAPSHOT (Posted 12/31/2020)

Legislation: The Aurora Covenant
Date signed by President: 12/18/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-1-0 {5} | SN: 5-0-0 {5}

Description of Legislation: The Aurora Covenant is a treaty between the Union of Democratic States and the East Pacific. It contains standard clauses for mutual defense and non-aggression, intelligence sharing, diplomatic & culture exchange, and military cooperation. The East Pacific ratified the treaty on 12/30/2020.

Legislation: Amendment to the Constitution's Electoral Processes
Date vetoed by President: 12/17/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-1-0 {5} | SN: 5-0-0 {5}

Description of Legislation: This amendment clarified multiple parts of the Constitution to reflect realities in governance, as well as introducing new procedures for when elected positions go vacant within a few weeks of an election. It received outstanding support from the legislature, but was vetoed by the President due to a typo which caused the amendment to change a clause it did not mean to amend- this created a case of nearly duplicate clauses.

Legislation: Amendment to the Constitution, Pertaining to Vice-President and Minister powers
Date signed by President: 12/09/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 3-0-0 {3} | SN: 4-0-0 {4}

Description of Legislation: This amendment gave more stronger powers to the Vice-President, allowing for the Vice-President to now be delegated duties and responsibilities by the President. Additionally, the concept of "Ministers" is now less strict. Prior to the amendment, the President had to nominate Ministers with or without a portfolio (basically a set of responsibilities). Now, the amendment has removed the concept of a portfolio from the Constitution.

It seems like the legislature hasn't done much this month, which is totally understandable given the time of year. The influx of Constitutional amendments is interesting, and denotes an underlying motivation by the legislature to "fix" the Constitution and make it more serviceable. The treaty was, of course, the Executive continuing to do its duties in Foreign Affairs. Overall, it seems the legislature has done solid work this month whilst having a lower output than usual.

An interesting note about the General Assembly is how few Citizens voted on the above bills. In the past, the General Assembly has racked up to 10+ votes, but recently it seems to have fallen in number. The most possible reasons for this are twofold: a) it is the holidays so people are bound to be inactive and b) votes held on the forums typically hold less votes than those hosted by regional polls. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see whether this trend of lower-levels of activity will continue as NationStates steps out of the holiday season and slips back into regular happenings.

That's all for this legislative snapshot, tune in next time for more!
 
JANUARY 2021 SNAPSHOT (Posted 02/05/2021)

Legislation: Amendment to the Constitution (Elections)
Date signed by President: 01/06/2021
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-0-0 {4} | SN: 5-0-0 {5}

Description of Legislation: This Constitutional clarifies clauses dealing with elections, as well as clarifying certain election proceedures.

Legislation: The Honorary Citizenship Act
Date signed by President: 01/11/2021
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-1-0 {5} | SN: 4-0-0 {4}

Description of Legislation: This law institutes honorary citizenship- where people with this citizenship do not have to meet regular citizenship requirements, but at the same time may not participate in governance without regular citizenship.

Legislation: Motion to Confer Honorary Citizenship
Date signed by President: 1/27/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-0-0 {4} | SN: 4-0-0 {4}

Description of Legislation: This motion, following the procedures of the Honorary Citizenship Act, gives honorary citizenship to the following: Thatcher, Kade, Ark, Khevo, Zion, Kuriko. All nations who are well known for their hard work and dedication to the Union.

Legislation: The Elections Act
Date signed by President: 01/28/2021
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-0-0 {4} | SN: 4-0-0 {4}

Description of Legislation: This law institutes election procedures within the Union's law- prior to this law, elections were left to the full discretion of the Chancellors outside of the Constitution's provisions. It is important to note that the Chancellors still retain authority over elections- they just now need to follow this law as well as the Constitution.

Legislation: Amendment to the Delegate Voting Act (UL-008)
Date vetoed by President: 1/28/2020
Final Voting Tallies: GA: 4-1-0 {5} | SN: 4-0-0 {4}

Description of Legislation: This amendment attempted to repeal and replace the current Delegate Voting Act. It loosened the procedures surrounding how the World Assembly Delegate voted, and created an advisory board to assist the World Assembly Delegate in their vote. However, it was veto'd by the President following concerns with the method of the repeal and replace.

 
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