Bill: Rejected Dereliction Fix Part 2 Act

[zLost]

A
BILL
To

Amend the LSA and the Electoral Act​

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 'Dereliction Fix Part 2 Act.'
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately subsequent to the enactment into law of the 'Dereliction Fix Part 1 Act'.
(3) This Act has been authored by Representative zLost.
(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Representative RealImza.

2 - Reasons
(1) This Act aims to fix contradictions and problems regarding dereliction by amending the Legislative Standards Act (link) and the Electoral Act (link).
(3) To legislate "Leave of Absences" in the Legislative Standards Act.
(2) Note: Dereliction is already defined in the Legislative Standards Act. This Act does not implement dereliction, rather it fixes problems with it. This Act should be passed alongside Dereliction Fix Part 1 Act (link), this Act is being split up as a bill amending the constitution may not amend any other bills.

3 - Amendment
The Legislative Standards Act will be amended as follows:
13 - Voting
(1) Conflict of Interests. If or when there is a motion against or relating specifically to a member of Congress, their vote shall not be included. (e.g. Motion of nomination, no confidence, removal)
(2) Abstentions. An abstention vote must be submitted during voting if the member is not voting for or against the matter before congress. An abstention vote is different from a Ffailure to vote at all in that a failure to vote will be considered a non-vote, and however for the purposes of all other acts will be counted as an abstention.

14 - Dereliction

(1) Congressional Members will be considered to have committed dereliction of their duties, if:

(a) they fail to vote on five or more bills/motions which fail due to not meeting quorum.

(b) they do not have enough playtime to vote in elections.

(2) Congressional Members will be exempt from this if they request a leave of absence before committing these acts.

14 - Leaves of Absence

(1) Congressional Members may, at any time during their term, request their respective presiding officer for a Leave of Absence and give their reason for it. The presiding officer will always accept this request so long as it meets the following requirements:

(a) The Leave of Absence is not requested in response to, or immediately following, action taken against the Congressional Member for their inactivity.

(b) The time length of the Leave of Absence combined with any other previous Leaves of Absence the Congressional Member may have taken during their term does not exceed 1 month for Representatives or 2 months for Senators, respectively.

The Electoral Act will be amended as follows:
9 - Removal of Members of Congress

(1) If a Representative is no longer fit for office, they can be removed from Congress early by the relevant presiding officer with the consent of four-fifths of their chamber (Excluding the individual in question).

(2) If a Senator is no longer fit for office, they can be removed from Congress early by the relevant presiding officer with the consent of all members of their chamber (Excluding the individual in question).

(3) Removal shall require only a simple majority if the individual in question has committed dereliction of their duties.

Reason: This section is already stated in the Constitution, making it redundant in the Electoral Act.

Subsequent sections will be renumbered accordingly.

 

[Smami]

Nay, Granting the presiding officer the ability to deny one's LOA request opens the door to potentially politically motivated denials and strategic acts to get congresspeople removed due to no fault of their own. I support the intentions behind the bill but feel it grants far too much power to the presiding officer.

We should have enough respect for our representatives and senators to believe them when they make a LOA request regardless of the thoughts of those in charge of them.

I believe the following would make this more acceptable in my view and would change my vote to an Aye:

Remove "The presiding officer will accept this request so long as it meets the following requirements:" entirely
Add a clause that states that no congressperson may take a leave of absence longer than "1 month for Representatives and 2 months for Senators."
Add a clause that states that no congressperson may take a leave of absence directly following action taken against them relating to their activity.

 

[Franciscus]

Before re-voting

 

[Smami]

Aye, my concerns were addressed and I now believe this bill is in a good place