How to Congress - The Federalist Party Wants You!

Day 2,400, 09:23 Published in USA USA by MazzyCat


NOTE: This article will be long. If you want to run for Congress, but can’t be hassled with reading a guide, list of requirements and adhere to best practices then MOST LIKELY no top 5 party will ever consider running you.

Today's Federalist News:
1 | What is Erepublik Congress?
2 | How do I run for Congress in the Federalist Party?
3 | Mandatory Rules to follow as a Congress member.
4 | Best Practices (aka Common Sense)
5 | tl;dr, idgaf about Congress Just Show Me A Hot Girl

What is Erepublik Congress?

tl;dr version

Congress is the main legislative body of the nations of eRepublik so becoming a Congress member is one of important steps in every politician life. To become a candidate, you must have at least 100 Experience points. There are two basic ways to reach the party page where you can put your Congress nomination. Between the 16th and 23rd of the month you can:

Go to your party page - Click on Community - Party.
Click the button - Run for Congress


Read the statement and enter a URL for a presentation on why people should vote for you. This can be a newspaper article, a forum topic, or a link to your wiki citizen page.


The screen will refresh and you will get the message: You have applied to represent your party in the congress elections. The party president will select the official candidates on the 24th.


The Run for Congress button will be replaced with two new buttons:


On the 24th the list for congressional candidates will be closed and the party president will have the ability to manage the position of the members on these lists, if the list has more candidates.


Only candidates for the top five parties will be allowed to run for office. Country Presidents aren't allowed to run for Congress.


The maximum number of Congress members depends on the number of regions. In the most cases the the available seats are 40 (if a country has between 4 and 40 regions). Congress members are elected by a percentage of the entire countries votes to each party. For example, last elections results:

Larger parties usually always get more Congress members. Sometimes too many votes to a party can be detrimental to other party’s seats.

The main access area for Congress members and citizens is the ‘My Country’ menu. Here Congress members can review several areas of the country’s functions.


In the main menu, after accessing the 'Community' tab, a button named 'Elections' will be displayed for all citizens. This way, while you are in the New World you will only be one click away from seeing what's new in the eRepublik elections. (Note: This page is available all the time in order to see past elections results.)

For every proposed law, there will be a Debate link for the Congress members/President to specify a discussion area. (This is seldom used because eUSA has its own forum to debate.)

Like stated before, the Congress Members can propose only 2 laws in a mandate, while the Presidents can propose an unlimited number of laws. If the law's voting process has not been finished, the same type of law can not be proposed.

The voting process period for each law is 24 hours. Exception to this rule has been added on the end of September 2010 when Buy Constructions was declared special law - In these cases, the President can propose multiple laws in parallel. A second buy construction law can be proposed in the same time, but it costs Gold to propose it and its voting period lasts for one hour. If the voting period of the second one is finished, another special one (costs Gold, voting time of one hour) can be proposed.

In order for a law to pass, the majority of votes must be in-favor (in case of a tie, the law is considered to be rejected), even if only one vote has been expressed. An exception is the President Impeachment law, that requires 66% in-favor votes out of the expressed votes. The President can also vote the proposed laws. So, basically, the President and the Congress Members can vote once for each proposed law, but the laws that they can propose are different.
- When expressing your choice in Congress Elections, you will choose a party.
- The old Congress members lose their positions.
- Duties of Congress members include Proposing Laws and accepting Citizenship Requests (aka CS Requests)



The President and the Congress members will receive a private message announcing this issue if his/her country declared as natural enemy. A Congress member is unable to change citizenship without resigning, as you can only be a member of a political party (subsequently a Congressman) of whichever country you have citizenship in. If you leave your party or your country, you will not lose the Congress seat. The only way to lose that sit is to resign from Congress.

How do I run for Congress in the Federalist Party?


Federalist Congressional Elections are coming up!

The requirements are:

1. Party Activity: You will need to be involved in the party in all capacity. This includes 30 days of party membership
2. Party Support: You will need to help the party with earning votes. This could mean PMs, articles, shouts, or general networking. More votes for us = more people in.
3. Personal Ethics: You will need to be in line with the Party's ethics, which includes honest voting practices or you will be subject to censure and future bans from Congress (i.e. no bribery, NEVER approving CS without IES approval).
4. Personal Backgroun😛 You will need to pass an FBI Check to be eligible.
5. Congressional Activity: If you get elected, you will need to be active in Congress to maintain eligibility. Keeping involved in discussion and votes is the main form of activity.
6. Congressional Policy: If you get elected, you will need to follow all Congressional Policy especially in regards to IES to maintain eligibility. This is non-negotiable. I repeat, THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.
7. Fed Policy if you resign before the end of your term:

Quite generally frowned upon. Usually lots of whips and flays and is quite unpleasant.
Partner with Party Leadership ASAP (ie Party President, VP, other known leadership)
Possible suspension from running in the future.

Make sure you run in-game if selected.


Mandatory Rules to follow as a Congress member.

The illustrious Rainy Sunday created two awesome guides that we [provide] for new congressmen.

I would suggest all of you read it for a nice refresher. Otherwise, I would suggest all the Parties somehow get this info to their incoming congressmen every month. An informed congress is a productive congress.
- Evry

Guide 1, Orientation
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A1yQ0nnQ1L6pDwDL32UjpGKphAONYvvb0vCtDxS--i4

Guide 2, How an Idea Becomes Law
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c_qK3wlTRPa-BOvlRjFbYKmYBlK-naOmoldopqtKCAw

READ ME IMMEDIATELY Citizenship Approval Rules for Congressmen READ ME IMMEDIATELY

1. Approval of Citizenship Requests

Citizenship approvals shall follow the rules promulgated by IES. Immigration regulations: http://tinyurl.com/eIES-regulations Failure to follow these rules may result in censure or another admonishment by the Speaker of the House.

2. Failure to follow IES Procedure for granting citizenship

Any Congressman that does not follow the citizenship approval procedure promulgated by IES (or does not give a prompt explanation for the approval) when granting citizenship faces censure from the SoH, up to a ban. Said censure cannot last more than 1 month unless congress votes to extend it. Whether an offense merits any censure is entirely up to the SoH or the Congress body as a whole (via vote). Congress can vote to overturn any censure at any time.

This bill does not add/remove/change any part of the procedure for granting citizenship or upkeep of the IES blacklist.

3. Selling Citizenship is Illegal

It shall be illegal for any elected Congressman to sell citizenship for items, gold or money of any currency. If evidence is found of a Congressman selling citizenship, a proposal for censure shall be initiated and voted on by Congress.

4. Censure of Congressmen who approve Blacklisted citizen applications

Any Senator who approves the citizen request of a player on the IES Blacklist will be banned from the Congress forums and, at the leisure of the forum admins, the eUSA forums.

a) This can be overturned by a vote from Congress, or by the SoH within a week of the banning.
b) This ban is effective until Congress votes to remove it
c) Any party that runs this candidate again recognizes the fact that the candidate will not be able to serve congress in all but the most basic in-game functions.

Originator: Morrigan Alexandros

Sources:
Vote: Citizenship Approval Rules for Congressmen http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,13850.0.html
Proposal: Citizenship Approval Rules for Congressmen http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,13803.0.html
Previous Discussion: http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,13754.0.html
Draft Proposal: http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,13755.0.html
IES Application to request US Citizenship: http://tinyurl.com/eUSIESApp
Immigration regulations: http://tinyurl.com/eIES-regulations
To check application status: http://tinyurl.com/IESStatus

Congress Best Practices (aka Common Sense)

1. Post this URL in your profile. I can't approve your citizenship request, but you can fill this form: http://tinyurl.com/eUSIESApp



You will be messaged to approve citizenship requests by random players. All you need to do is thank them for their message and tell them they must fill out the IES forms as instructed in that link and wait to be contacted by an IES agent. That is it. Even if it is an emergency YOU DO NOT APPROVE CS REQUESTS WITHOUT IES APPROVAL.

2. Generally, supporting the enemy in any capacity is frowned upon. For example, fighting Resistance Wars (RW) against the eUSA or supporting RWs that are not sanctioned by the Department of Defense (DoD) and/or leaking private discussions to the enemy is forbidden. Congress has the right to censure you at will for stupid stuff that is not in the best interest of the country.

3. Lulz proposals are a no no. Please follow the directions here to propose laws correctly:

Guide 2, How an Idea Becomes Law
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c_qK3wlTRPa-BOvlRjFbYKmYBlK-naOmoldopqtKCAw

4. Ask seasoned players questions before doing something you’re not familiar with! It never hurts to ask your Party President a question about what is smart and what is not smart to do as a Congress member. Believe me its a fun game to get those medals on your profile, but double check with someone who is knowledgeable if the action you are thinking of taking make compromise the integrity of your country, your party and your self. Remember Country > Party > Self.



tl;dr, idgaf about Congress Just Show Me A Cute Kitty



Thanks for reading!
[img]http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p647/ksantos337[/img]