B.I.G.M.E.A.T.Y.C.L.A.W.S. Act

[Dekks]

This legislation is up for vote until the 24th of February 2021.

Category: Legislation

Author: Student Loan Debt

Co-Sponsor: Veyoris

Chapter I: General Provisions

1. This act may be referred to as the "Bill Integrating Government Membership Entry And Tipping Your Councilors Larger Authority With Security
Act" or the "B.I.G.M.E.A.T.Y.C.L.A.W.S.
Act" or "Big Meaty Claws Act" or "Big Meaty Claws Act of 2021"
2. This act will come into force upon passage.

Chapter II: Executive Appointments Amendments 

1. The Executive Appointments legislation shall be amended.
2. Subsection 2.1.1, Clause 1,

"Council Aides serve at the pleasure of the Councilor that appointed them. Their service is terminated when the Councilor that appointed them leaves
office. There is no limit on how many Council Aides a single Councilor may appoint."

shall be replaced with the following:

"Council Aides are Member of Congress that serve at the pleasure of the Councilor that appointed them. Their service is terminated when the Councilor that appointed them leaves office or directly removes them. There is no limit on how many Council Aides a single Councilor may appoint."

3. Subsection 2.1.1, Clause 3,

"Residents may reject all or part of any request to serve as a Council Aide and may resign from their Council Aide positions at any time."

shall be replaced with the following:

"Members of Congress may reject all or part of any request to serve as a Council Aide and may resign from their Council Aide positions at any time."

4. Subsection 2.1.2, Clause 1,

"Court Clerks serve at the pleasure of the High Judge. Their service is terminated when the High Judge that appointed them leaves office."

shall be replaced with the following:

"Court Clerks are Members of Congress that serve at the pleasure of the High Judge. Their service is terminated when the High Judge that appointed them leaves office or directly removes them."

5. Subsection 1.1.1 shall be amended to include the following Clause:

"A director may be forcibly removed from office by a majority vote from the Council or Congress."

6. Subsection 1.2.1, Clause 3

"The Secretary-General is mandated to document DSA Departments and their functions in a manner which is fully transparent to Congress."

shall be replaced with the following:

"The Secretary-General is mandated to document DSA Departments and their functions in a manner which is fully transparent to Congress. Councilors may alter the functions and specifics of Departments within their Ministry as they see fit."

Chapter III: Discord Administration Amendments

1. The Discord Administration legislation shall be amended.

2. The definition of Administrator,

"The User who is the official owner and sole administrator of the Discord Server with full administrative privileges and permissions serving indefinitely but at the pleasure of Congress or until their resignation."

shall be replaced with the following:

"The User and Member of Congress who is the official owner and sole administrator of the Discord Server with full administrative privileges and permissions serving indefinitely but at the pleasure of Congress or until their resignation."

3. The definition of Moderator,

"a User whose task is to enforce the conduct and behavior rules and only the conduct and behavior rules on the Discord Server and only the Discord Server, serving indefinitely or at the pleasure of the Administrator"

shall be replaced with the following

"a User and Member of Congress whose task is to enforce the conduct and behavior rules and only the conduct and behavior rules on the Discord Server and only the Discord Server, serving indefinitely or at the pleasure of the Administrator"

[cellefranca]

I oppose this Act because it threatens the mutual trust that was established between the DSA and The Socialist Syndicalist Union. This Act would rendered most of the NationStates Solidaric Triad Agreements legislation void, meaning that our treaty with TSSU would be severely damaged.

This is because under the current treaty, citizens of a signatory region can be nominated as Council Aides or Department Directors - conversely, DSA citizens can work in any TSSU's syndicate if they apply. If we bar signatory members from enjoying these advantages, we can rest assured that TSSU will enact similar policies towards us, which would limit our interregional agreement just to intelligence sharing and joint cultural events.

Considering that Councilors have complete discretionality on who to nominate for a position as an aide to government, I do not believe that there is any reason to fear foreign intervention in regional politics or any other unjust behaviour; in fact, it is more likely that a foreigner could pose as a Member of Congress to intervene in regional affairs without disclosing their affiliation to a third party. The treaty I helped to create is specifically designed to grant new possibilities of cooperation with our socialist allies, while making sure that these new avenues will not be abused. I have worked with the region alot to make sure that all concerns in this regard were given a solid response in the drafting of the NSSTALA Act.

Because of all these reasons, I will vote AGAINST this proposal and I encourage others to do so as well. 

[studentloandebt]

As for my reason of creating the bill

Looking over DSA Legislation, I noticed some odd things

-Council Aides must be residents but do not need to be Members of Congress
-Court Clerks face the same situation
-Councilors have say as to who can be appointed as Directors within their Ministry while they are a Councilor, but have no say as to that Director's removal, despite it being policy for years now that Councilors can remove Directors from their Ministry's Departments
-Council Aides seem to only be able to be removed as Council Aides once their Councilor leaves office, despite it being policy for years now that Councilors can remove Aides from their Ministry.
-The Discord Admin and Mods do not have to be Members of Congress This is odd because of a specific clause in the Discord legislation

"Section 1.3 ​​Discord-Based Voting Procedures
Subsection 1.3.2 -​​ ​​Rules and Procedures
4. Only Members of Congress may cast votes in polls conducted on the Discord should they pertain in any way to moderation and administration. Any User may vote in all other polls. All Users may only cast a single vote."

It says only MoCs can vote in votes regarding moderation and administration. However, in the same law, it says nothing regarding being an MoC and a Mod. According to the law, you don’t have to be a MoC to be a Moderator but your do have to be an MoC in order to vote in polls regarding moderation. Wouldn’t it make sense for Mods to be required to be MoCs as result if this clause is in there?

-Also in the same legislation, Mods don't even need to be Residents. They don't even have to be in the same region as the DSA to be a Mod for the DSA Server.

There are quite the amount of legal voids and lack of enumeration for powers already in use. This bill addresses it



As for Celle Franca’s concerns, I disagree on what the NSSTA attempts. At the moment, it is required that you must be a DSA resident to be a Council Aide and that you must be a Member of Congress to be a Department Director. So already the NSSTA does not apply. But if it were to apply, then it would be creating an unfair field. If it were to apply, people who aren’t even in the region could become Aides and Directors and make decisions within a government that doesn’t even apply to them. Meanwhile, those who actually are in the region would have the extra requirement of having to be an MoC to be a Director. Why should those who are actually DSA members have to be MoC to be Directors but those who aren’t even in the region don’t have to? That seems unfair to me. Even with Celle’s point of
“ it is more likely that a foreigner could pose as a Member of Congress to intervene in regional affairs without disclosing their affiliation to a third party.”
At least in that situation they would be a resident in our region and thus subject to the laws and policies they may implement while in our government.
I do not feel that the NSSTA should be considered in this vote.