Bill: Rejected Budget Publication Act V2

[Silly Billy(Raz0Baz0)]

A
BILL
To
Amend the Appropriations Process Act of 2024.
​

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Budget Publication Act V2'

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.

(3) This Act has been authored by Representative Raz0Baz0 and AsexualDinosaur.

(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Representative Just_Jada.

2 - Reasons

(1) The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont deserve transparency in the activities of their government in regards to its spending and budget.
(2) Amend the Appropriations Process Act of 2024

3 – Amendments

(1) Section 7 of the Appropriations Process Act of 2024 is to be amended as follows:

7 - Budget and Financial Transparency
(1) A #budget channel will be made under the Government category on Discord.
(a) All members of Congress shall be able to read this channel. The #budget channel is to be publicly viewable.
(b) The Presiding Officers of Congress, the Deputy Presiding Officers of Congress, the Cabinet, Deputy Secretaries, Executive Officers, Judicial Officers, and heads of any federal government institutions — including, but not limited to, the Federal Reserve Bank — shall be able to view and write in this channel.
(i) Additional positions may be able to view and write in this channel if permitted by the President or Chief Justice.
(c) A transcript of this channel will be made available to the public at the end of each Fiscal Month.
(i) Confidential data such as trade secrets may be redacted from this transcript.
(d) All non-classified payments made for any reason by federal government institutions will need to be declared in this channel; all money received by federal government institutions must be reported in this channel.
(i) Federal government institutions without a corresponding Minecraft account are exempt from this. Instead, they must submit a transcript of all non-classified transactions in #budget, and all classified transactions in #classified-budget following the end of each Fiscal Month.
(2) A #classified-budget channel will be made under the Government category on Discord.
(a) All members of Congress shall be able to read this channel.
(b) The Presiding Officers of Congress, the Deputy Presiding Officers of Congress, the Cabinet, Deputy Secretaries, Executive Officers, Judicial Officers, and heads of any federal government institutions — including, but not limited to, the Federal Reserve Bank — shall be able to view and write in this channel.
(i) Additional positions may be able to view and write in this channel if permitted by the President or Chief Justice.
(c) All transactions made for any reason by federal government institutions that are deemed classified or otherwise not considered public information will need to be declared in this channel.
(i) All transactions declared in the #classified-budget channel are considered classified.

 

[ToadKing]

I love copying myself.

 

[ToadKing]

- as Representative xEndeavour, rather verbosely put on the previous attempt to pass this legislation:

Nay - we have a representative democracy.

As we circle around the sun once more, and my bones start to age and wither, I find myself agreeing with Representative End on certain political tenets and principles increasingly. But we do live in a twilight world, one where former antagonists may find common ground. Gone are the days of a hostile hearing on a Monday, followed by casual contempt charges the following Tuesday. I might be more inclined to sit and have a tea with the koala.

At the time of his previous vote, perhaps it seemed terse. But he was onto something. The essential idea that Redmont is a Representative Democracy.

Representative democracy is not merely a convenient means for governance. It's not a term you can throw around easily without understanding the fundamentals. Representative democracy is the framework upon which the Commonwealth was materialised, and it carries with it certain expectations about how citizens and their representatives relate to one another. This flavour of democracy illustrates a deliberate choice about how oversight should function - when citizens elect representatives, they delegate not just voting power, but the responsibility of informed oversight. This includes the duty to investigate spending with full context and the accountability to act on findings through hearings, legislation, or impeachment. This duty is enshrined in the Constitution.

End raised an issue regarding speculation on the contents of the budget channel spilling into #politics. On this point, I must part ways with him. That channel will be what it will be - you cannot legislate civility into public discourse. My concern is not with #politics. My concern is with the constitutional role of this Congress, and whether this bill strengthens or weakens it.

I believe making the raw budget data publicly available in real-time does not reinforce Congress's constitutional role, nor enhance this oversight function. It bypasses the representative function completely. The Constitution vests Congress with the power of the purse and the duty to check and balance the Executive. That duty presupposes that Congress is the body reviewing expenditures and asking the questions. When we make data available to everyone in real-time, we do not augment that function - we render it redundant. Why would a citizen wait for congressional oversight when they can watch the transactions themselves? Draw their own conclusions? Inundate specific department heads due to increased spending in certain areas? The answer is: they would not. In that shift, Congress loses something essential. It becomes an afterthought rather than the mechanism through which accountability flows.

And for what? At its core, this Act assumes that more access equals a better democracy. But critically, the public already receives budget information through monthly reports.
Congress already conducts oversight.
The system already works.

Let us not forget what DemocracyCraft is. DC promises players the ability to create, amend, and remove the laws that govern them. But the mechanism through which that promise is fulfilled - the mechanism that has been built and refined over the years - is representative democracy. Elected members of Congress acting on behalf of their voters. This bill chips away at that mechanism - and sets a precedent. Staff Intent warns of decision time creep: small changes that seem harmless in isolation, but compound over time until the original intent is unrecognisable.
Once we bypass Congress's oversight role, even slightly, that door rarely closes.

For the foregoing reasons, I do not support this bill as it stands.
I hope this rationale is transparent and clear enough to understand.
If you have any further questions, please shoot me.


Now I'm off for some tea.