Vetoed Secretarial Responsibility Act

[ElainaThomas29]

A
BILL
TO
Hold Secretaries accountable in enforcing Bills that directly impact their department


The people 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 “Secretarial Responsibility Act.”
2. This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
3. This Bill was authored by Representative ElainaThomas29 and cosponsored by Representative ReinausPrinzzip, Representative Azdrus, Senator pugbandit, and Senator xerxesmc.

2 - Reasons

1. After the creation of some Bills that directly impact department function and responsibility, Secretaries have chosen to not enact said Bills into their department policies, but rather ignore the creation of said Bills.
2. This Bill will hold Secretaries responsible for implementing created legislation that directly impacts their department into their departments policy.

3 – Terms

1. Secretaries will have 15 days from the passing of this Bill to update department policies with current legislation that is already in existence and directly impacts department policy.
2. Moving forward from the passing of this Bill, Secretaries will have 15 days from the passing of a Bill that directly impacts department policy to change said policy within their department.
3. If a Secretary fails to implement legislation that directly impacts their department, punishment will be issued as follows:
   1. If the department policy has not been updated within 15 days of the initial passing of this Bill or future Bills that directly impact department policy
      1. The Secretary will owe $1,000 in fines.
   2. If an additional 5 days passes from 3.3.1 in which department policy has still not been updated with legislation that directly impacts department policy.
      1. The Secretary will owe $2,000 in fines.
   3. If an additional 5 days have passed from 3.3.2 in which department policy has still not been updated with legislation that directly impacts department policy.
      1. The Secretary will owe $3,000 in fines.
      2. Congress will look into removal of the Secretary in question from their position of Secretary. The Department of State shall consider if an audit is necessary for the Department in question, and if feeling that an audit is appropriate will conduct one.

 

[218218Consumer]

Veto

I vetoed this for several reasons:

1. I don't believe this bill would actually be effective in motivating secretaries to enforce department policy. If a department fails to implement department legislation within a reasonable timeframe, there tend to be two possibilities: 1) the secretary refuses to execute the policy out of their principles or political beliefs or 2) they are incompetent and their department is in such a state of dysfunction that the policy is not enforceable at the time. While both of these situations would suck, I don't believe minor financial loss would motivate secretaries to bend on their personal beliefs on running a department that they're very likely passionate about, nor would it suddenly make disorganized departments functional enough to implement legislative requirements.

2. There already are mechanisms of executive accountability that are both more flexible and easier to action by Congress. Investigations, censures, and impeachment trials will do far more to motivate action by a department than a $3,000 fine. If Congress sees that a government department is failing to do implement something simple before 25 days have passed, it should not rely on the threat of a small portion of a secretary's personal finances to get them to enforce a certain law. Conversely, if Congress passes some massive department change that the executive is gracious enough to sign into law, reasonable enforcement of that change could take well over 25 days, and thus secretaries should not be liable for taking extra time to do their job properly.

3. Further, Congressional reliance on the courts instead of direct investigations to hold secretaries accountable would be slower and require far more litigation than what would be appropriate in proportion to the severity of the punishments. Any lawyer attempting to get a secretary fined on questionable grounds of failing to enforce a policy would have to go through the attorney general, and trust me, the attorney general will not make it easy. Unless the executive develops a policy of immediately settling every case, are people really willing to enter a long, drawn-out lawsuit over a $3,000 fine every time a secretary doesn't do something? Practically, no. Again, if Congress wants to hold the executive accountable, going through the courts is not a fast way to do it, and more importantly, it is not an effective way to do it.