SB 106-22: The Scott–Yankee Memorial Budget Process Act of 2022 (Passed)

[Joseph Cao]

SENATE BILL

Because trying to sort through the existing mess is murder and because people don't listen!

Be it enacted in the Senate Assembled,

The Scott-Yankee Memorial Budget Process Act of 2022

Section 1:  Previous Legislation
1. The Budget Process & Control Act of 2017 is hereby repealed

Section 2: Definitions
1. Fiscal Year: Fiscal Year shall be a twelve month period from October 1st until September 30th of the next calendar year.

2. Budget: A piece of legislation that shall be passed each year by October 1st, for the fiscal year commencing that date, functioning as an omnibus appropriations bill.
 
3. Authorizations: Any spending that is mentioned or included in laws other than the budget.  

Section 3: The Budget Process
1. The President shall submit to the Senate no later than April 1st, a budget proposal for the fiscal year starting October 1st.

2. No spending authorized after August 1st shall be included in the budget for the fiscal year starting October 1st, but shall instead take effect the following fiscal year thereafter.  Emergency measures shall be excluded from this restriction, on declaration of the President, provided such spending does not exceed two fiscal years.

3. If the President fails to submit a budget by April 1st, Congress should proceed with its own proposal.

4. All non-exempt appropriations shall be amended into the budget on or following August 1st.

Section 4: Authorizations Bills
1. Any bill that includes spending shall be considered an authorization bill, excepting for the budget itself.

2. All spending must be explicitly stated in legislation to be authorized and all authorizations affecting taxation must pass with revenue estimates.  

3. No spending may be appropriated in the budget without having first been authorized.

4. Emergency measures shall be exempt from clauses 3 and 4, on declaration of the President, provided such spending does not exceed two fiscal years.

Section 5: Implementation
1. This bill shall take effect beginning with the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2022 and the budget and related spending bills passed for such.

People's and Region's Senate
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Sponsor: North Carolina Yankee
Status: Awaiting Sponsor Advocacy

72 hours to debate.

[Joseph Cao]

Both Scott and Yankee are welcome to give advocacy.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Yankee authored this bill, so I will allow him to explain the necessity of this legislation and stick our severed heads to his pikes. Essentially, this bill will require that the price of authorizations bills, including tax changes, be fully calculated and therefore authorized prior to being budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year. Only in emergencies may authorized spending take place immediately in the current fiscal year.

Also, I will also add that implementation of all expenditures passed after July 1st, 2021 will need to be delayed for the upcoming fiscal year.

[FrancoAgo]

that of fully calculated and therefore authorized is the sane part, after there is the insane

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This bill does a couple of things.

1. Once again establishes that for the necessity of the game practicalities, spending after a set date has to be on the following fiscal year's budget.  This will help to mitigate a number of issues that have arisen for Scott, particularly for recently passed bills that lacked an implementation date and were passed mid fiscal year.  Those bills naturally would be obvious for this, but you have to go back a couple months prior to the start of the fiscal year, because you cannot realistically amend in spending passed September 28th for the Budget beginning October 1st. So I went with August 1st here, at points I have suggested July, it really comes down to balancing game practicality with the desire to get things implemented.

2. It reiterates the present statute linked in the text on Presidential submission by April 1st, and if President fails, rather than triggering a complex committee process the responsibility falls to Congress at large. I am open to moving this later as the current Budget Process Act was made during 2017 when we had bicameralism and I almost made this July 1st this time, but then I remembered this has failed at the Administration stage every year since 2017 and probably not wise to reduce that six month window until the administrations actually can deliver it, then at that point we can discuss shrinking to four or three months for debate. Though maybe the opposite dynamic is true and making it later would improve the ability or just the impetus for the administration to get it in. I am open to arguments on that date either way. There is also the election cycles, which I did not really factor in as much as the other considerations, but naturally there are points that could be made regarding a February vs a June elected President proposing the budget.

3. It reiterates the need for appropriations to be explicitly stated, which shall hopefully soon form part of the rules, though I think this got brought up ahead of that rule change. It should be noted that this language here doesn't impact Senate rules and thus is constitutional, it merely states the requirements for authorizations to be valid under statute.

4. The biggest change, the most controversial and perhaps the one most likely to make the President's job complying with the April 1st deadline (or a later date if amended now/changed later) easier is that this bill separates appropriations and authorizations from one another.

This means that the President doesn't have to hunt down every last bill's spending, he can pick and choose what his administration prioritizes and then it is up to Senators to fight to ensure that anything he missed gets included whether intentional or not.

This will make it more contentious but with six months (April 1st to Oct 1st) to fight it out in a single chamber, a little bit of controversy and division leading to people fighting over the budget as a normal part of the game play, would be a marked difference from the present situation. As to the present situation, where the budget is a thankless task performed by elder statesmen three to four months late, and people are just glad that it is done, is the exact opposite of what we had pre-reset and expected after the 2017.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Yankee authored this bill, so I will allow him to explain the necessity of this legislation and stick our severed heads to his pikes. Essentially, this bill will require that the price of authorizations bills, including tax changes, be fully calculated and therefore authorized prior to being budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year. Only in emergencies may authorized spending take place immediately in the current fiscal year.

Also, I will also add that implementation of all expenditures passed after July 1st, 2021 will need to be delayed for the upcoming fiscal year.

Correction, I had changed it to August 1st. I am open to go even later, but it comes down to what is practical to incorporate in the back end of a proposal that is originally submitted in April in a budget that has to be signed, sealed and delivered by October 1st. We do have one chamber now, but we know how these things can go as well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

after there is the insane

Is it more insane than the present status quo though.

1. We pretend every bill is an appropriations bill, thus necessitating the President become compiler in chief

2. We then pretend every bill is not an appropriations bill at the end of each fiscal year for the annual OMG WE GOT TO PASS A BUDGET OR ELSE, LETS GET A CONTINUING RESOLUTION IN QUICK panic mode.

Ultimately this is a game and we suspend disbelief for the sake of certain game functions and practices etc. However, in this case, I think we should at least consider alternative approaches since the present situation has not been conducive to actually working.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am not seeing this on the new noticeboard.

[WD]

I am not seeing this on the new noticeboard.

Fixed.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

We have a new Senate in place now, so if there are questions from the new members about this, the existing situation or relevant matters, lets get them addressed.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

For the record, I intend to use this legislation as our model for the FY2022 budget that we were supposed to pass last year. The FY2023 budget, which comes in April, will follow.

[Saint Milei]

I like this idea.

[WD]

Opening a vote in 24 hours.

[WD]

A final vote is now open. Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Aye

[Continential]

aye

[WD]

Aye

[OBD]

Aye

[Kuumo]

Aye

[S019]

AYE

[Saint Milei]

Aye

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Aye

[Joseph Cao]

Aye.

[Deep Dixieland Senator, Muad'dib (OSR MSR)]

Aye

[West_Midlander]

Aye