SENATE RESOLUTION: Federal Initiative System Amendment (Passed)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

AN AMENDMENT
to the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, in Congress assembled:

Section 1 (Title)
i. The title of this Amendment shall be, the “Federal Initiative System Amendment.” It may be cited by its ordinal number in order of ratification.

Section 2 (Federal Initiative System Amendment)
i. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia shall be amended as follows:

1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be derived from the people, who ordinarily vest this power vested in the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
2. The Vice President shall be the President of the Congress, but shall have no vote in the House of Representatives, nor in the Senate save when they be equally divided.

ii. Article II, Section 5 shall be amended as follows:

1. Legislation may ordinarily originate in either house, and both houses shall reserve the right to propose and concur with amendments; but all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.

2. Whenever either house shall vote to pass a bill, order, or resolution that shall have originated in the other, having previously made amendment to the same, the President of the Congress shall immediately call the amended bill to a vote in the house in which it originated. If the original house should then vote to pass the amended bill, it shall proceed to the President; otherwise, the President of the Congress shall instruct the other house either to pass the bill as it stood prior to its amendment by that house, or else reject it entirely.

3. Every bill, order, or resolution which shall have passed the Senate and the House of Representatives shall, before it becomes law, be submitted to the judgment of the President. If they approve of it they should sign it; but if they disapproves they should return the bill to the house in which it originated with their objections. If, after considering the objections of the President, both houses should by a 2/3 vote agree to pass the same bill, it shall become law regardless of the President's objections.If any bill, order, or resolution shall not be returned by the President within ten days after it has been presented to him, the bill shall become law.

4. If so specified in the text of the bill, order or resolution in question, the bill may be required to pass a national referendum before its enactment. In that case, the person responsible for the management of federal elections shall be duly notified and organize a national referendum at a date specified by the Congress in the text of the bill, order or resolution; but this referendum may not start until at least 14 days have passed since the bill has received support from the President, except if this date coincides with a federal election. If no date for the referendum is specified in the text of the bill, order or resolution; it shall be assumed that the referendum is to take place alongside the next federal election.

5. The People of the Republic of Atlasia shall reserve themselves the power to directly introduce legislation. Any citizen of the Republic of Atlasia shall have the right to post a bill in the Atlas Fantasy Elections board, clearly specifying that the post in question is a bill to be submitted as a National Legislative Initiative. If this Legislative Initiative gets signatures representing 10% of the voters at the last federal election and accounting for 5% of the last Federal Census within 10 days from its introduction; the Legislative Initiative shall be considered to be accepted. Otherwise it shall be considered to be rejected, and no Legislative Initiative on the same subject may be introduced for a period of 30 days.

6. Legislative Initiatives considered to be accepted shall be duly taken note of by the person responsible for Federal Elections. The person responsible for Federal Elections shall take a public note of this in their office thread, and open a vote on the initiative in question alongside the next federal election.

7. Any Initiatives introduced by the people of the Republic of Atlasia shall not exceed the ordinary powers of the Congress.

8. Initiatives introduced by the people of the Republic of Atlasia may not deal with the following subjects:
a) Constitutional Amendments of any kind
b) The Federal Budget
c) The raising and lowering of taxes; or any other bills for the purposes of appropiating money for the federal government

9. Any national referendums shall be considered to have passed if a simple majority of voters votes in favour of the bill, order, resolution or initiative in question.

10. Any national referendums shall be operated under the same rules as federal elections for the Presidency of the Republic of Atlasia

Section 3: Explanation
1. This amendment allows the people of the Republic of Atlasia to directly introduce legislation and submit it to a national referendum. This amendment also allows the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia to divert pieces of legislation to a national referendum if it finds it is in the national interest.

Sponsor: Tack50
Senate Designation: SR25:10

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Initial Debate Period - Sponsor Advocacy!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Most all the Regions had initiative process prior to 2010 and had no elected legislatures. Mideast was the only region that had a legislature for a while then the NE followed. IDS formed one in early 2010.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've seen a single referendum innitiative attempted in the South according to those rules in the 2.5 years I've been here. Part of that might just be that the threshold is so high or because many people probably don't know its there. In any case, referenda won't be happening too often so it isn't a radical change and is unlikely to significantly undermine Congress' control over the legislative process.

There is a term for this that I cannot recall basically when people collectively forget something exist. Not quite collective memory but close. I realized this with newspapers in that when you go a period of time without them new people won't know they are a thing.

This dynamic is even worse now thanks to the discord effect and decline of the afe board.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Back a few months ago, I dug up the initiatives from the 2009 era in the South. The word meme wasn't big then but it applies to several of them.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I wonder if this reform would work better at the regional level first, by expanding the current initiatives systems and building upon them instead of starting federally.

Lower stakes if something goes wrong and what not

Regardless of level, a lot of these things need serious promotion and awareness raised to make sure that people take notice of them.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I wonder if this reform would work better at the regional level first, by expanding the current initiatives systems and building upon them instead of starting federally.

Lower stakes if something goes wrong and what not

Regardless of level, a lot of these things need serious promotion and awareness raised to make sure that people take notice of them.

In fairness other than a public post in the forum if this is ratified (and possibly some sort of pinned post or reference to it in the guide for new players) I cannot think of anything else that could be done?

We have to figure out ways to encourage engagement and to that end it is perhaps time to consider outside of the box approaches to this same end. Naturally though there are cons to every option. PM/DMing people brings annoyance risk and also the heavy lifting to actually do that arduous task.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Leaving the issue of player engagement, what is the next item of business on this resolution?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Leaving the issue of player engagement, what is the next item of business on this resolution?

Well, since this is a constitutional amendment, I personally like to have comments from Windjammer and/or Truman as Chief Justice and AG respectively; just to know if this would mess up our constitution badly or if they have any suggestions.

Unless it is super simple stuff, we should certainly proceed with caution when amending the constitution

All other Senators and citizens are of course invited to bring up any issues they may have.

Has such a request for input been sent to those people yet?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Give em Hell Harry giving a Hell No!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senators have 24 hours to object to the amendment.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The amendment is adopted.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So what's next here? to proceed with the tabling vote, a second is needed. A final vote could be opened much easier at this stage though. Are there more amendments?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A Final Vote is now open on this resolution, Senator please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Aye

Senators have 24 hours to change their votes.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

BOO!

Sad to see some of our greatest defenders of regional rights voting for a resolution that would allow a tyrannical majority to bypass the Regional Senate. It already takes long enough to pass bills through Congress —we don't need a third house gumming up the works!

Agreed! So lame!!

We had it pre-reset. Something has to change in terms of civic engagement or this game won't exist for its regions or for regional Senate to matter. So drop with the insults please.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

BOO!

Sad to see some of our greatest defenders of regional rights voting for a resolution that would allow a tyrannical majority to bypass the Regional Senate. It already takes long enough to pass bills through Congress —we don't need a third house gumming up the works!

Agreed! So lame!!

We had it pre-reset. Something has to change in terms of civic engagement or this game won't exist for its regions or for regional Senate to matter. So drop with the insults please.

You can't legislate activity into existence.

That isn't the objective.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

BOO!

Sad to see some of our greatest defenders of regional rights voting for a resolution that would allow a tyrannical majority to bypass the Regional Senate. It already takes long enough to pass bills through Congress —we don't need a third house gumming up the works!

Agreed! So lame!!

We had it pre-reset. Something has to change in terms of civic engagement or this game won't exist for its regions or for regional Senate to matter. So drop with the insults please.

You can't legislate activity into existence.

That isn't the objective.

What does "civic engagement" mean, then? Your last post implies that the game will cease to exist if we do not pass this amendment, and I'm trying to understand how that's plausible.

What I am saying is that we do not have much interest in policy or issue based concerns in the general public. My hope is some element of direct public engagement in legislating might cause that situation to change in some positive way.

I don't think the game is long sustainable as being overwhelmingly dominated by massive armies of disengaged discord zombies.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Vote on Senate Passage of the Federal Initiative System Amendment:

Aye (4): Jimmy, LT, NC Yankee and Tack50
Nay (2): Devout Centrist and YE (technically late)
Abstain (0):

Didn't Vote (0):


This has passed the Senate and is sent to the VP for House Action.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

AN AMENDMENT
to the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, in Congress assembled:

Section 1 (Title)
i. The title of this Amendment shall be, the “Federal Initiative System Amendment.” It may be cited by its ordinal number in order of ratification.

Section 2 (Federal Initiative System Amendment)
i. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia shall be amended as follows:

1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be derived from the people, who ordinarily vest this power vested in the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
2. The Vice President shall be the President of the Congress, but shall have no vote in the House of Representatives, nor in the Senate save when they be equally divided.

ii. Article II, Section 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia shall be amended as follows:

1. Legislation may ordinarily originate in either house, and both houses shall reserve the right to propose and concur with amendments; but all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.

2. Whenever either house shall vote to pass a bill, order, or resolution that shall have originated in the other, having previously made amendment to the same, the President of the Congress shall immediately call the amended bill to a vote in the house in which it originated. If the original house should then vote to pass the amended bill, it shall proceed to the President; otherwise, the President of the Congress shall instruct the other house either to pass the bill as it stood prior to its amendment by that house, or else reject it entirely.

3. Every bill, order, or resolution which shall have passed the Senate and the House of Representatives shall, before it becomes law, be submitted to the judgment of the President. If they approve of it they should sign it; but if they disapproves they should return the bill to the house in which it originated with their objections. If, after considering the objections of the President, both houses should by a 2/3 vote agree to pass the same bill, it shall become law regardless of the President's objections.If any bill, order, or resolution shall not be returned by the President within ten days after it has been presented to him, the bill shall become law.

4. If so specified in the text of the bill, order or resolution in question, the bill may be required to pass a national referendum before its enactment. In that case, the person responsible for the management of federal elections shall be duly notified and organize a national referendum at a date specified by the Congress in the text of the bill, order or resolution; or during the next federal election, whichever happens sooner. If no date for the referendum is specified in the text of the bill, order or resolution; it shall be assumed that the referendum is to take place alongside the next federal election.

5. The People of the Republic of Atlasia shall reserve themselves the power to directly introduce legislation. Any citizen of the Republic of Atlasia shall have the right to post a bill in the Atlas Fantasy Elections board, clearly specifying that the post in question is a bill to be submitted as a National Legislative Initiative. If this Legislative Initiative gets signatures representing 10% of the voters at the last federal election and accounting for 5% of the last Federal Census within 10 days from its introduction; the Legislative Initiative shall be considered to be accepted. Otherwise it shall be considered to be rejected.

6. Legislative Initiatives considered to be accepted shall be duly taken note of by the person responsible for Federal Elections. The person responsible for Federal Elections shall take a public note of this in their office thread, and open a vote on the initiative in question alongside the next federal election.

7. Any Initiatives introduced by the people of the Republic of Atlasia shall not exceed the ordinary powers of the Congress.

8. Initiatives introduced by the people of the Republic of Atlasia may not deal with the following subjects:
a) Constitutional Amendments of any kind
b) The Federal Budget


9. Any national referendums shall be considered to have passed if a simple majority of voters votes in favour of the bill, order, resolution or initiative in question.

10. Any national referendums shall be operated under the same rules as federal elections for the Presidency of the Republic of Atlasia

Section 3: Explanation
1. This amendment allows the people of the Republic of Atlasia to directly introduce legislation and submit it to a national referendum. This amendment also allows the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia to divert pieces of legislation to a national referendum if it finds it is in the national interest.

People's Regional Senate
Passed 4-2 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,