Vetoed Congressional Expansion Act

[ameslap]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
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A BILL TO

AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO
EXPAND CONGRESS




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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:


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PART I — PRELIMINARIES

1. Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘Congressional Expansion Act’

(2) This Act shall be enacted during the next general Congressional election.

(3) This Act has been authored by Representative Ameslap, using material authored by Stanley582.

(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Senator Dartanboy.

(5) This Act amends the following Constitution.

2. Reasons and Intent

(1) Redmont has seen an influx of players and playtime in the last three months.

(2) This influx creates even more disparity in the Citizen-to-Congress ratio, a body that is designed to be of and for the people.

PART II — Amendments

3. House of Representatives

(1) Section 3 of the Constitution shall be amended to read:

3. House of Representatives
The House of Representatives shall consist of 11 15 citizens, referred to as Representatives who are elected for a 2-month term.

4. Senate

(1) Section 4 of the Constitution shall be amended to read:

4. Senate
The Senate shall consist of 6 8 citizens, referred to as Senators who are elected for a 4-month term. The Senate acts as the house of review to the House of Representatives.

5. Absolute Floor

(1) Section 10(3) of the Constitution shall be repealed:

(3) Absolute Floor. Notwithstanding the above, no decision shall be valid unless it receives at least affirmative votes equating to 4 for the House of Representatives, and 2 for the Senate.

6. Transition Period

(1) The seats created by this act shall be filled at the first regularly scheduled congressional election following the enactment of this bill.

(2) Newly created seats shall not be included in the statutory number of seats until the first citizen assumes that office.

(3) With the two newly created Senate seats:

(a) One seat shall be designated as a Class A Senate Seat

(b) One seat shall be designated as a Class B Senate Seat

(c) The citizen who initially is elected to one of the additional Senate Seats shall serve until the expiration of the term of the class to which that seat has been assigned

 

[greymc]

Votes prior to H-5/38(2CS)

 

[Dartanboy]

Aye - Our population has grown immensely. It's time to grow Congress too.

 

[xXTheoryXx]

Veto

PRESIDENTIAL VETO​

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This Act would expand the House of Representatives from 11 seats to 15 and the Senate from 6 seats to 8, repeal the Absolute Floor at Section 10(3) of the Constitution, and provide for the transition of the new seats.

I support the expansion. The activity figures justify it and the citizen to Congress ratio is a fair thing to raise. I withhold assent because of Section 5 and because the transitional provisions do not do what they were written to do.

First, Section 10(3) is the only provision in the Constitution requiring that a decision command a minimum number of ayes. Quorum under Section 10(1) is calculated on the modified statutory number of seats, which subtracts one seat for every affirmatively stated abstention, and Section 10(2) then decides the majority on the number who voted. Remove the floor and the arithmetic collapses. In a House of 15, twelve affirmative abstentions reduce the modified statutory number to 3, quorum to 2, and a bill carries on two votes. In a Senate of 8 it happens sooner.

Because every supermajority threshold in the Constitution is proportional, the floor is what prevents those thresholds being met by a handful of members. Without it, a constitutional amendment could clear a chamber under Section 36(1) on two ayes, and an impeachment conviction under Section 48, which carries removal from office and a ban of up to two months, could be returned by two Senators voting alone. I record that this point touches me personally, since I am among those an impeachment would reach, and I raise it anyway because the provision protects every officeholder and every future one.

Second, expansion makes the floor more necessary rather than less. Four and two represent roughly 36 percent of the House and 33 percent of the Senate today. Against 15 and 8 the same figures fall to 27 and 25 percent. The floor is already diluted by Sections 3 and 4 of this Act. Repealing it in the same instrument moves both dials in the same wrong direction. If the concern is that the floor defeats bills a clear majority of participating members supported, and that is a fair concern given the pressure Section 52 places on members to abstain affirmatively rather than not vote, then the answer is to raise the floor to five and three, not to delete it.

Third, Section 6(2) cannot do its job. It provides that newly created seats are not included in the statutory number of seats until filled, but it sits in this Act rather than in the Constitution. Section 51 provides that only text physically contained within the Constitution may be considered part of it, and that anything outside purporting to hold constitutional power is stripped of that authority and reclassified as ordinary statute. Section 6(2) therefore cannot qualify the quorum calculation in Section 10(1). On commencement, quorum would be computed on 15 and 8 while the chambers still hold 11 and 6, and vacant seats are not abstentions, so they do not reduce the denominator. The House quorum would rise from 6 to 8 in a chamber of 11. The safeguard the sponsors wrote against precisely this outcome does not operate.

I record the following for Congress and for the Office of Congressional Affairs.

Section 1(2) enacts this Act during the next general Congressional election, while Section 6(1) fills the new seats at the first regularly scheduled election following enactment. Read together, the seats arrive an election later than intended.

The Senate transition is harder. Section 9(5) elects Class A in January, May and September and Class B in March, July and November. The two new seats are assigned one to each class, so they are never on the same ballot. One of them cannot be filled at the next election at all, and Section 6 does not say who holds it, or whether it counts, in the interval.

I would sign this Act with three changes. Strike Section 5, or replace the Absolute Floor with figures proportionate to the new chamber sizes. Move the substance of Section 6(2) into the constitutional text so that it has effect. And state expressly when each new Senate seat is filled, and how the statutory number is counted until then.

My thanks to Representative Ameslap for authoring this Act, to Stanley582 for the material it draws on, and to Senator Dartanboy for co-sponsoring it.

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This bill has been vetoed and is hereby returned to Congress.

Theory Fontaine
30th President of the Commonwealth of Redmont​