Act of Congress Appropriations Process Act of 2024

[CaseyLeFaye]

A
BILL
To

Establish a Modernised Appropriations Process​

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment
(1) This Act may be cited as the 'Appropriations Process Act of 2024.'
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) This Act has been authored by Speaker CaseyLeFaye, President UnityMaster, and Vice President lcn.
(4) This Act has been co-sponsored by Rep. Yeet_Boy.

2 - Reasons
(1) The current Appropriations Process Act is severely outdated and unclear.

3 - Repealed Acts
(1) The Appropriations Process Act and the Urgent Budget Consideration Act are hereby repealed.

4 - Definitions
(1) The monthly Federal Budgetary Bill may be referred to as the “Appropriations Bill.”
(2) An “Appropriations Act” is an Appropriations Bill that has been signed into law.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, “federal government institution” shall mean any Redmont federal government Department, any Redmont federal government Branch, any institution established under Redmont federal law, and any institution established by Redmont Executive Order, including Towns.
(a) Institutions under Towns, such as Town departments, are not considered federal government institutions.
(4) A “Fiscal Month” begins on the 1st day of that month at 05:00 UTC and ends on the 1st of the next month at 05:00 UTC (e.g. the Fiscal Month of January would start on January 1st at 05:00 UTC and end of February 1st at 05:00).

5 - Budget Requests
(1) Between the beginning and the final week of a Fiscal Month:
(a) The President should submit to Congress the requested appropriations for each Department, in addition to any Executive Funds and the Presidential Reserve.
(b) The Chief Justice should submit to Congress the requested appropriations for the Judiciary.
(c) The Speaker of the House should submit to Congress the requested appropriations for the Legislative.
(d) The heads of any other federal government institutions may submit to Congress the requested appropriations for their respective institutions.
(2) The requests described above, along with any reasons provided for them, shall be made visible to all of Congress.
(3) If they are submitted, then Congress should consider these requests in the writing of the Appropriations Bill.

6 - Monthly Federal Budgetary Process Outline
(1) A Representative may propose an Appropriations Bill to Congress for approval by a simple majority in both chambers.
(2) Appropriations Bills are not subject to any congressional bill cool-off period and may be proposed at any time.
(a) Bills that seek to amend an Appropriations Act are not exempt from the congressional bill cool-off period.
(3) The Appropriations Bill is automatically urgently considered in the last week of the month, 24 hours after being proposed.
(4) At the start of and during each Fiscal Month, if an Appropriations Bill for that Fiscal Month has been signed into law, all funds shall be returned from each federal government institution’s balance to the DCGovernment balance within 24 hours. Then, each federal government institution shall be distributed funds in accordance with that Fiscal Month’s Appropriations Act.
(a) In the scenario that an Appropriations Bill is not signed into law, then the most recently used Appropriations Act shall be reissued and distributed. These appropriations shall only be made to federal government Departments and federal government branches.
(ii) If the current fiscal month's appropriations are passed after the previous fiscal month's appropriations are reissued, the positive difference in funds will be distributed. No federal government institution shall have their monthly budget retroactively lowered.
(5) Only one Appropriations Act can be used per month. If multiple Appropriations Bills are signed into law in the same Fiscal Month, only the first to be signed shall be used to distribute appropriations in accordance with Subsection 6(4) of this Act.

7 - Budget and Financial Transparency
(1) A #budget channel will be made under the Government category on Discord.
(a) All members of Congress shall be able to read this channel.
(b) The Presiding Officers of Congress, the Deputy Presiding Officers of Congress, the Cabinet, Deputy Secretaries, Executive Officers, Judicial Officers, and heads of any federal government institutions — including, but not limited to, the Federal Reserve Bank — shall be able to view and write in this channel.
(i) Additional positions may be able to view and write in this channel if permitted by the President or Chief Justice.
(c) A transcript of this channel will be made available to the public at the end of each Fiscal Month.
(d) All payments made for any reason by federal government institutions will need to be declared in this channel; all money received by federal government institutions must be reported in this channel.
(i) Federal government institutions without a corresponding Minecraft account are exempt from this. Instead, they must submit a transcript of all transactions in #budget following the end of each Fiscal Month.

8 - Presidential Reserve
(1) The President may have a discretionary fund for the purposes of appropriating to Executive departments as required.
(2) Distributions from the Presidential Reserve must be disclosed in #budget with which department they are distributed to and the reasoning.
(3) The reserve amount will be set in each Appropriations Bill.
(4) Funds in the Presidential Reserve shall not be exempt from the requirement to be returned described in Subsection 6(4) of this Act.

9 - Executive Funds
(1) The President may create Executive Funds by means of Executive Order.
(2) Executive Funds are created for a specific purpose, as described in the Executive Order, and can only be spent for that purpose.
(3) Executive Funds may be appropriated money in the Appropriations Bill.
(4) Funds in Executive Funds shall be exempt from the requirement to be returned described in Subsection 6(4) of this Act.

10 - Miscellaneous
(1) Funds in the following federal government institutions shall be exempt from the requirement to be returned described in Subsection 6(4) of this Act:
(i) Towns;
(ii) federal government institutions established by law outside the Constitution, not including Departments; and
(iii) federal government institutions established by Executive Order.

 

[Unitymaster]

Presidential Assent

This bill has been granted assent and is hereby signed into law.