Modern Appropriations Act

[TheArtemis_]

​

House Vote: 8-0-0
Senate Vote: 5-0-0

CONGRESS OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF REDMONT
​

---

A BILL TO

CLEAN UP THE APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS




​

---

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 ‘Modern Appropriations Act’

(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon assent.

(3) This Act has been authored by Gwi Styx.

(4) This Act has been sponsored by Representative Julia Tempest and co-sponsored by President of the Senate Talion Contour.

(5) This Act amends the Appropriations Process Act.

2. Reasons and Intent
(1) Congress has consistently failed to pass appropriations bills in time over the past few fiscal months.

(2) The process needs to be streamlined to allow congress to be as flexible as the other branches when appropriating funds to the wider government.

(3) Appropriations need to begin the process of becoming law much sooner.


PART II — AMENDMENTS

4. General amendments

(1) A clerk, or other such authorised individual, shall make the amendments necessary to the formatting of the Appropriations Process Act to bring it into line with other, modern Acts of Congress, as laid out in the Bill & Resolution Formats.

5. Amendments to Section 4

(1) Section 4 (3) of the Appropriations Process Act shall be amended as follows:

‘(3) For the purposes of this Act, “federal government institution” shall mean any Redmont federal government Department, any Redmont federal government Branch, any institution established under Redmont federal law, and any institution established by Redmont Executive Order, including Towns.
(a) Institutions under Towns, and their institutions, such as Town departments, are not considered federal government institutions.

6. Amendments to Section 5

(1) Section 5 (1) of the Appropriations Process Act shall be repealed and replaced with the following:

‘(1) Requests for appropriations for the following Fiscal Month shall be made no later than the 15th of the current month by:

(a) The President for each Department, in addition to any Executive Funds and the Presidential Reserve.

(b) The Chief Justice for the Judiciary.

(c) The Speaker of the House for the Congress.

(d) The heads of any other federal government institutions for their respective institutions.

(e) The Mayors of the Towns where they seek federal funding for their Town.’


7. Amendments to Section 6

(1) Section 6 Subsections (1-3) of the Appropriations Process Act shall be amended as follows:

‘(1) A Representative may propose an Appropriations Bill to Congress for approval by a simple majority in both chambers, provided that no appropriations Act is already in effect for the Fiscal Month of said Bill.

(2) Appropriations Bills, and Bills which amend them, are not subject to any congressional bill cool-off period and may be proposed at any time.
(a) Bills that seek to amend an Appropriations Act are not exempt from the congressional bill cool-off period.

(3) The An Appropriations Bill, or a Bill which amends an Appropriations Act, is automatically urgently considered in the last week of the month, 24 hours after being proposed.’

(2) Section 6 (4) of the Appropriations Process Act shall be repealed and replaced with the following:

‘(4) At the start of each Fiscal Month, all funds not exempted by statute shall be returned from each federal government institution’s balance to the DCGovernment balance within 24 hours. Following this, funds shall be distributed according to the latest Appropriations Act signed into law.

(a) Where an Appropriations Act for a Fiscal Month, or an amendment to that Act, comes into law after the distribution of funds:

(i) that Act or amendment shall supersede any Appropriations Act previously used for distribution for that Fiscal Month;

(i) positive discrepancies in appropriated funds may be subsequently distributed; and

(ii) negative discrepancies in appropriated funds shall be moot, as funds shall not be returned once distributed until the start of the next Fiscal Month.

(3) Section 6 (5) of the Appropriations Process Act shall be struck.

8. Amendments to Section 10

(1) Section 10 of the Appropriations Process Act shall be amended as follows:

‘(1) Funds in the following federal government institutions shall be exempt from the requirement to be returned described in Subsection 6(4) of this Act:

(i) Towns;

(ii) federal government institutions established by law outside the Constitution, not including Departments; and

(iii) federal government institutions established by Executive Order.’

 

[Franciscus]

Presidential Assent

Setting a budget deadline is a good step towards ensuring that budgets are voted on with enough time to get them to pass. It also provides clarity with respect to towns, whose status in our Constitution now renders them as not being federal government institutions.

I do have some concerns about the 15th being chosen; that is Inauguration Day for new presidents, and I think that a president should have a bit more time to form their own budget in their first months, rather than having the first ~1.5 months of their 4 month term be restricted by a prior administration’s spending priorities. But the Congress has over 3 months to fix this before the next President is elected, and I trust they will.

This bill is granted assent and is signed into law.