Confirmation Hearing: Fhtagn for Deputy Game Moderator

[Dr. MB]

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24 hours for initial statement and then move on to questioning.

[fhtagn]

I wanted to start by thanking Mr. Reactionary again for the nomination, and thanking the VP and the Senate for taking the time to get this started.

When Mr. Reactionary approached me asking if I would be interested in becoming Deputy Game Moderator, I was excited to hear his plans for improving the GM Department and to make the game more interactive for all players, not just those in the highest offices. One of the things I pride myself in when it comes to my Atlasian career is bringing a new standard activity level for the offices I take on, for every office I've been in. I'm extremely excited to bring my experience and interest in interacting with the regional government, federal government, and even those who are just registered players to the GM Department. I also feel as proven in the 13th Congress, Mr. Reactionary and I make a very effective team, having constantly worked together across both chambers of Congress to get things done, leading to a record breaking session.

Something else I feel that I bring to the team is having prior experience in the budget process and seeing how it works firsthand. Having been the first President post-reset to submit a budget, I worked with the GM Department and the Budget Process Committee when it came to the numbers generated and getting the process completed in a timely manner, even with the road blocks we hit along the way.

I don't want to make this too long since I hope that you all have questions that you would like to ask. So once again, I'd like to thank you all for your time, and I look forward to answering any questions you all might have during this hearing.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

My first question pertains to economic data and the budget information. Will you as Deputy GM be responsible for the release of such data? Will it be a mix of the both of you, or will Mr. R handle that going forward?

Also in terms of the connectivity here, what efforts will be made in terms of continuity with past data, and also the relationship between the numbers released. I took it from Mr. R's response that he would explore moving back to incorporating an activity metric into say economic data. However my concern is that if we have substantial deviations of unemployment from GDP And both from the budget/revenue numbers, these could preclude rational policy responses such as say demand side stimulus etc because one set of numbers looks good, but the other set is bad because of an arbitrary factor. So my basic question is can we expect that there will be relative consistency in the numbers released?

As a former SoIA yourself, you are very much aware of the importance of the SoIA (when functioning properly) in terms of the interaction that should occur between the SoIA and Game Moderation team regarding economic and domestic issues. As you well know though, this hasn't always happened though. Would you therefore be of a mind to perhaps consider taking the lead in feeding information to the SoIA through maybe a briefing or some such that he has to then communicate to the President and to congress?

Likewise with regards to the regions and we have seen in many instances cases where the regions aren't engaged and one thing that could help with that is feedback as to the effects of regional policies and generalized problems that they have to respond to. What changes if any are being consider in terms of the way that information is piped to the Regional Governments?

[Mr. Reactionary]

Just want to say for the record that my Primary hope is that Fhtagn can take on the story writing process... i have a spreadsheet with stories through june mapped out by week but they still need to be fleshed out into full fledged news articles. This would allow me more time to work on numbers forecasting. Im not bringing back an activity metric, merely tweaking the value of the spending and tax multipliers used to calculate unemployment against GDP, as Im less of a Keynesian true believer than my distinguished predecessor.

[fhtagn]

My first question pertains to economic data and the budget information. Will you as Deputy GM be responsible for the release of such data? Will it be a mix of the both of you, or will Mr. R handle that going forward?

As mentioned by Mr. R, he will be the one who mostly handles the economic data and budget information, while most of my work will be dealing with the story writing process. That being said, we all have things going on outside of Atlas that might restrict our time on the forum, so it's an area I'm more than willing to fill in and assist with should he need me to take that on at any point.

Also in terms of the connectivity here, what efforts will be made in terms of continuity with past data, and also the relationship between the numbers released. I took it from Mr. R's response that he would explore moving back to incorporating an activity metric into say economic data. However my concern is that if we have substantial deviations of unemployment from GDP And both from the budget/revenue numbers, these could preclude rational policy responses such as say demand side stimulus etc because one set of numbers looks good, but the other set is bad because of an arbitrary factor. So my basic question is can we expect that there will be relative consistency in the numbers released?

Because I won't be the one handling the economic data for the most part, it's not something I've discussed in much detail with Mr. R (most of our conversations have revolved around handling the story writing process), but I would imagine once this process is finished and he knows that he for sure has a Deputy GM, there would be much more discussion on this topic. That being said, he has answered above how he intends to handle this.

As a former SoIA yourself, you are very much aware of the importance of the SoIA (when functioning properly) in terms of the interaction that should occur between the SoIA and Game Moderation team regarding economic and domestic issues. As you well know though, this hasn't always happened though. Would you therefore be of a mind to perhaps consider taking the lead in feeding information to the SoIA through maybe a briefing or some such that he has to then communicate to the President and to congress?

Once the nominated SoIA is confirmed, I fully intend to engage in regular communication with them in order to ensure their job is being done efficiently in response to storylines that have been published, and any other issues brought to the GM Department. As a former SoIA, I hope to improve on that line of communication that I don't feel I received from previous GMs (worth noting that I don't mean this as a criticism of how other GMs ran their departments, just a note of how I would personally handle it differently given my experience). I'd like to establish a regular line of communication with officeholders, whether that be via PM or discord, rather than simply publishing stories and hoping they see it.

Likewise with regards to the regions and we have seen in many instances cases where the regions aren't engaged and one thing that could help with that is feedback as to the effects of regional policies and generalized problems that they have to respond to. What changes if any are being consider in terms of the way that information is piped to the Regional Governments?

As many Atlasians have probably noticed by now, Mr. R and I have been pretty good at keeping track of regional policy proposals and generalized problems, often engaging with regional officeholders as private citizens. As folks who have already paid attention to detail in that way before, I feel that as a team this gives us an edge when it comes to ensuring that our stories and data released are relevant to things that are currently going on in the regions. We also have planned to improve the GM Department relations with the regions by spending equal time on regional stories, an area many Atlasians have felt (and voiced their feelings about) were ignored for the most part. Once again, not bashing how other GM Departments were run, just mentioning how we would like to improve things and do them differently. Similar to my response about the SoIA, it is my goal to regularly engage with regional officeholders regarding stories published and economic data, especially regional executives and speakers of the legislatures.

[Pericles]

Two questions;
-Does the nominee have an idea as to how long they plan to serve in this role?
-Can the nominee assure the Senate that despite their political history and strident partisanship, they will be able to be a fair Deputy Game Moderator, and that their personal political opinions won't influence the decisions they make in this position?

I may have more questions later.

[fhtagn]

-Does the nominee have an idea as to how long they plan to serve in this role?

I don't have a set time frame on how long I plan to stick around in the role, as there are numerous factors that could determine it. I can say that it's a role I plan to take seriously and anticipate staying on as long as Mr. R (or whoever becomes GM again if he leaves) keeps me. So that's really the best I can answer that unless some emergency situation comes up restricting my ability to do the job. But similar to Truman's situation when he was GM, should something come up that leads me to resign (which I don't see happening at any point, but emergencies happen), I'd be more than happy to give as much advance notice as possible and stay on until a replacement is found.

-Can the nominee assure the Senate that despite their political history and strident partisanship, they will be able to be a fair Deputy Game Moderator, and that their personal political opinions won't influence the decisions they make in this position?

Of course. My views as a private citizen have nothing to do with how I would carry out the duties required in this position. The GM Dept shouldn't be viewed as a partisan position (which is why I had no issues nominating a Labor Party member for GM when I was President) and I'd respect that when posting anything official from the department. I am also not the one running the department, and anything I post or actions I carry out are still checked by Mr. R prior to going through with them.

[Dr. MB]

24 hours for objections to a final vote.

[Lechasseur]

No objections

[Dr. MB]

As there have been no objections a final vote will be held. It will last 72 hours.

[Pericles]

Aye

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

AYE

[Lechasseur]

Aye

[Lachi]

aye

[Mr. Reactionary]

4-0-0

[Dr. MB]

Fhtagn is hereby confirmed as Deputy Game Moderator, 4-0-0.

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