Vetoed Congressional Quality Control Act

[HatManMC]

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT​

---

A BILL TO
AMEND THE CONSTITUTION

​

---

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:
​

PART I: PRELIMINARIES
1: Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the “Congressional Quality Control Act” or “CQCA”.
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) This Act was authored by Speaker HatManMC with review and revision by Representative EmeraldGuuy, Deputy President of the Senate _GreyMC, and Senator Stanley582.
(4) This Act has been cosponsored by Representative EmeraldGuuy.
(5) This Act amends the following acts:
(a) Constitution of the Commonwealth of Redmont

2: Reasons and Intent
(1) Recently, elections have been filled in a deluge of low-quality candidates that run simply for the love of the game or for the position itself rather than in the intended noble pursuit of assistance.
(2) Additionally, some run for office without having a proper understanding of how Congress works, leading to stagnation or mismanagement on Capitol Hill.
(3) Though an accurate representation of the voter base is important, we need to ensure that our legislature is run by people qualified to hold office in this great nation.
(4) For this reason, this Act raises the requirements to run for House and Senate.

PART II: AMENDMENTS
(1) §8(2) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Redmont shall be amended as follows:

Activity Requirements. In order to run for and maintain theira seat in the House of Representatives, citizens need to meet these requirements:

• Has 12 hours active playtime in the last 30 days.
• Has accrued 2448 hours of active playtime.
• Has been 1 month since the player's initial join date.

(2) §9(3) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Redmont shall be amended as follows:

Activity Requirements. In order to run for and maintain theira seat in the Senate, citizens need to meet these requirements:

• Has 12 hours active playtime in the last 30 days.
• Has accrued 7296 hours of active playtime.
• Has been 2 months since the player's initial join date.

 

[alexis_123003]

- I believe we can make senate 2 months and not 3 because at that point your waiting for the presidential election.

 

[EmeraldGuuy]

- this helps

 

[greymc]

voting prior to motion to amend

 

[unalign]

- I already nayed before poll close, but yea I think it's a good decision as imo democracy shouldn't be limited

 

[antonfr]

Veto

​

---

The Congressional Quality Control Act amends §8(2) and §9(3) of the Constitution to raise the bar for running for Congress. Representatives would need 48 hours of total playtime instead of 24 and at least a month since first joining, and Senators would need 96 hours instead of 72 and at least two months since first joining.

I understand the frustration behind this bill, but I do not believe the answer to weak candidates is fewer candidates. Choosing who is fit to serve is the job of the voters, and §35(1) of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to run for elected office. Raising the barriers to entry takes that choice away from the people and gives it to a playtime counter. Playtime also says very little about whether someone understands how Congress works, which is the problem the bill itself describes.

The timing makes this worse. We are expecting a large wave of new players soon, and many of them will be engaged and capable people who want to get involved. Under this bill, a new player who joins and dives straight into politics would be locked out of the House for a month and out of the Senate for two. That is the wrong message to send to the people we should be welcoming.

The bill also removes the words "and maintain their" from both sections. Today, a sitting member who stops meeting the 12 hours in 30 days requirement no longer meets the conditions for holding their seat. Under this bill, that requirement would only apply on the day someone runs, and a member could go inactive for the rest of their term while keeping the seat. So the bill makes it harder for new players to run while making it easier for inactive members to stay, which is the opposite of quality control. I also note that the bill says it takes effect "immediately upon its signage", but as a constitutional amendment it would still need to pass a referendum under §36.

Overall, I believe this bill restricts the democratic choice of voters, shuts out new players at exactly the wrong moment, and weakens the activity standard for sitting members. If Congress wants better candidates, I would rather we invest in helping new players learn how Congress works than in keeping them out of it.

Thank you to Speaker HatManMC for authoring this bill, to Representative EmeraldGuuy for cosponsoring it, to Deputy President of the Senate _GreyMC and former Senator Stanley582 for their review, and to Congress for its work on it.

This bill has been vetoed.