Three Accomplishments of the 22nd Congress

Day 702, 18:23 • Published in USA USA • by seeker1

It has become fashionable to grumble that Congress is just a rubber stamp and does nothing but create red tape. There is a kernal of truth in the "rubber stamp" assertion. Most of Congress' votes non-controversial ones to move money to the Congressional Budget Office so it can easily be spent by the executive in accordance with the Congressional budget. Many others renew existing MPPs that expire monthly and must be renewed or allowed to lapse. These, too, are usually uncontroversial.


But there is more that Congress does than is indicated by the in-game votes we take. Below, I describe three important initiatives that Congress initiated or advised upon during the term almost completed.


During this term, with the war on our territory almost over, Congress again became active. With minimal dissent, we established an infrastructure plan based on establishing two states, Florida and California, as our two "fortress states". Each of them now has a Q5 hospital to attract population and a Q5 defense system to add height to the defensive wall that population creates. As the eUS population increases to the point where it can support another "fortress", we will consider at least the resource endowments, the number of companies hosted, and the strategic importance of candidate states before making the new "fortress" designation. (This would probably require sufficient population to maintain 5,000 in the new fortress state without decreasing the populations of the existing fortresses.)


Congress also approved a measure very important to me. Congress voted to make many of its debates public at the time they occur. Debates on the following topics will be visible when they have been presented to Congress as a formal proposal: Donations to the CBO, Money Issuing, Tax Changes, Impeachment proposals, Citizen fee changes, Minimum wage changes.
Subjects that will still be debated in secret are those directly related to national security. The implementation of this measure will be labor intensive, and it may require technical changes in the administration of the forum, so it may take some time. Nevertheless, I am pleased to see Congress take this major step toward reducing the secrecy of its deliberations, one of my strongest concerns.


Although the President and his administration are primarily responsible for formulating foreign policy, Congress has an advisory role. In addition, it must approve declarations of war and peace, Mutual Protection Pacts with other nations, and, through the budget it passes, the financing for all the military and other executive functions. At the initiative of Gaius Julius and with the cooperation of Congress, the eUS has begun to implement a new foreign policy framework. Working with the cooperation of our Broillance partner, eCanada, and with the help of our friends in the Eden Alliance, we are making the liberation of various nation's original territories from PEACE occupation one of the pillars of our policy. Our military has participated in a number of Resistance Wars with this purpose, most recently freeing an Indian region from Iranian occupation. We expect that this policy will help rehabilitate our image in the world.


Sceptics will probably say that these are not major decisions, that they are somewhat uncontroversial. I can only assure them that they have been fought over with passion in the past. Congress in particular and the US political system in general may make decisions slowly, but it does make them.


seeker1
Senator from Maine