Citizens Assembly
Citizens Assembly of Deseret | |
|---|---|
| 1st Congress | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
Term limits | 6 terms |
| History | |
| Founded | 6 June 2022 |
| Preceded by | Deseret Congress |
New session started | 6 June 2022 |
| Leadership | |
President of the Assembly | |
Speaker of the Assembly | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 466 |
Composition of political parties | |
Political groups | Equity and Social Liberation Coalition (239) |
Length of term | 1 year |
| Salary | $105,000 $155,000 (Speaker) $125,000 (Committee president) |
| Elections | |
| Ranked Voting | |
Last election | 22 May 2023 |
Next election | 20 May 2024 |
The Citizens Assembly of Deseret, often shortened to the Assembly, is the unicameral legislature of the federal government of Deseret. The Assembly was created after the reorganizing of the legislative branch in 2022, during which Congress was consolidated into a single chamber with more explicit powers with the goal of creating a more unified, streamlined, and representative government. Members of the Assembly represent the national population.
The Assembly is unique in that the voters themselves act as a "second branch" of sorts and officially introduce and ratify on legislation, with the Assembly itself turning citizen resolutions into bills, voting on bills along with the voters (except for specific items where only the Assembly or the citizens vote), and taking care of specific issues outlined in the Constitution and as directed by the President, such as ratifying treaties, declaring war, impeachment, forming committees, and voting on emergency resolutions. The Assembly is led by the Speaker of the Citizens Assembly and is composed of multiple political parties.
History
The first idea for a unicameral legislature dates back to the drafting of the Constitution, where a single body similar to the United States House of Representatives was proposed and seriously considered. Unicameralism was thought to be to prone to corruption and abuse of power, and so was never implemented. Despite this, support for a single, more powerful legislative house to more efficiently and effectively vote on legislation and respond to immediate issues continued to hold. The support for a unicameral branch was strong among historically disinfranchised groups, who viewed a single house as being more open and quicker to react than two separate chambers, and rose steadily in the wake of heated debates on slavery and the American Civil War.
In 1860 Frederick Cook, a representative, introduced an amendment to combine Congress into a single legislative body with the goal of weakening the power of pro-slavery American immigrants in the Senate and responding quicker and more decisively to the pressing issues of slavery, American, Mexican, and British aggression, continued population growth, and national cohesion. Critics were quick to publicly shun the amendment, calling it un-democratic, un-republican, un-Christian, and both pro-slavery (by anti-slavery activists) and anti-slavery (by pro-slavery activists). The amendment was never voted on as the more pressing matters of the American Civil War and Mexico's aggressive military actions were at the forefront on legislative attention, but was reintroduced in 1873, 1900, 1915, 1930, and 1946.
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A national movement to intoduce a unicameral legislature came about in 1983 after the Senate blocked a House-passed bill that would have recognized same-sex couples as domestic partners. The bill was blocked by Senators from Bountiful, Ephraim, Mojave, and Utah, all low-population states which were seen as being over-represented in the Senate. The support for a unicameral legislature came from the ideas that the Senate under-represented larger states and over-represented smaller states, that Congress was prone to partisan gridlock, and that it's powers were too separated, as both houses were seen as being different and distinct rather than similar and unifying. The most popular idea of unicameralism in the 80s and 90s was a chamber much like the House of Representatives; however, critics of the House claimed that, since representatives were apportioned among the states by population and geographic areas, a House-like legislature would continue to have districts of unequal size, would continue to encourage regional divides instead of national cohesion, would separate similar people along state lines and lump disimilar people together into districts, and would increase gerrymandering. Public opinion was swayed by prominant congresspeople and politicians in favor of a proportional system, although many critics attacked the idea of a party-based system as opposed to a "person-based" system.
The idea for the currently-implemented Assembly came about in 2018, where it was championed as being the "people's chamber" and was aimed to reduce costs, political gridlock, the dominance of two or three larger parties, gerrymandering, and corruption. The idea for the assembly was authored by senior political analyst Kristinna Hurron and was endorsed by the Deseret Union Party, several smaller political parties, and by many in the Reform Party. Hsu's proposal placed most legislative power into the hands of the general populace, with the Assembly being mostly ceremonial and voting on issues of impeachment, war, taxes, the budget, and treaties. The name 'Citizens Assembly' was coined by Hurron in 2019.
Public support for the Assembly rose to around 60-70% during the 2020 presidential election, where Nicole Young, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, endorsed the idea. An amendment to implement the Assembly was submitted on 14 August 2020, with a deadline on 31 December 2021. The Deseret Union-Reform coalition held a 2/3 majority in Congress and passed the amendment on 2 September 2020. Three-fifths of states (eight) needed to ratify the amendment before the deadline for it to take effect, six states (Columbia, Arizona, New Israel, California, South Madison, and North Madison) ratified the amendment within two weeks after it passed Congress. Sonora ratified the amendment on 12 February 2021. Colorado became the eighth state to ratify the amendment on 7 April 2021. The amendment's ratification was verified and put on record on 9 April 2021. The following election on 23 May 2022 was the first using the new voting and Assembly system.
Qualifications, elections, and apportionment
Apportionment
The amount of Assembly seats is directly tied to the national population. The number of seats changes every year based on the population data available for the previous year. Currently there is one seat for every 139,900 people; this is due to the fact that, upon switching to the Assembly, there was a maximum capacity of 419 seats in the Capitol. After renovation of the Capitol building in 2022 allowed for more seats to be held, one seat was changed to eventually represent every 100,000 people. The number of people per seat will decrease each year so as to not drastically increase the size of the Assembly in the span of one year. The ratios are: 139,900 (2022), 135,000 (2023), 125,000 (2024), 115,000 (2025), 100,000 (2026). Seats do not represent specific districts, but the population at large.
Qualifications
Assemblypersons must be at least 16 and no older than 65 by the time they are sworn in, must be citizens of Deseret, and must currently reside in the country.
Party elections
Anytime prior to the general election, the parties hold their own elections in which party members and/or delegates (depending on party rules) vote for several party members to be placed in the Assembly. Elections usually take place around March or April, but party candidates must have been selected prior to the first Monday of May, when general election ballots are sent out. The system of voting varies by party, but the most popular are ranked-choice voting done by all party members or delegates and instant-runoff voting done by delegates; several parties have senior officials select candidates without voting. Regardless of system used, all parties have a pool of candidates selected from which to draw from after the results of the election. The candidate with the most votes or highest priority is selected first, followed by the second, and so on until candidates have been selected to fill all won seats. Exact election/selection procedure, including ties, are left to the parties.
General election
The general election occurs every year on the second-to-last Monday of May, where all seats in the Assembly go up for election. Deseret uses a ranked-choice party-based voting system, in which voters vote for their preffered party and rank as many other participating parties from highest (1) to lowest. Ranked voting does not affect the election outside of being used to determine the placement of loose seats and being used when a party is disqualified after the election, and is mainly used to gauge public opinion on the various parties.
Vacancies
When a vacancy occurs due to death, resignation, or removal from office, the President selects someone to fill the vacancy until the next election. There are no rules on who the president may choose, other than the constitutional qualifications, meaning someone from any or no party may be selected to fill a vacant position, regardless of the party that held that seat.
Procedure and powers
Constitutional powers
Section 2.3 of the Constitution lists the powers and responsibilities of the Citizens Assembly. The Assembly has power to propose, refine, debate, and vote on bills of ant issue. The Assembly holds the sole power of impeachement and removal from office, war declaration, ratification of treaties, and confirming presidential appointments. The Assembly has incredibly broad power to ensure economic and social equality, scientific and artistic advancement, environmental protections, the protection and advancement of minorities, and to ensure that all people living within Deseret have access to high standards of living, healthcare, education, and safety. In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the Assembly has the sole power to set overall school curriculum, budgets, an policies, largely removing localities and states from education and streamlining and standardizing curriculum, the length of school days and years, salaries, equipment, personnel, and codes and conduct. The Supreme Court also ruled that the Assembly, along with the President, have near limitless power in order to provide the high standards of living, equal opportunities and outcomes, and environmental protections outlined in the Constitutions.
The Assembly inherited the extensive powers of minority philosophy from the previous Congress to protect the rights of minorities, with the power to override state and local laws, set aside land for minority groups, compensate individuals and groups for mistreatment, passing new laws for states and localities, and blocking governors, legislatures, and other state and local officials from passing new ordinances, laws, and orders. The Assembly can impeach and remove state and local officials it deems in breach or noncompliance of federal law, policy, or guidelines.
Leadership
Parties choose leadership in leaderships elections on the first Sunday of June. The person who is elected leader of the party is the head of that party in the Assembly. Coalitions vote on which party leader to represent the coalition in the Assembly. The Speaker of the Assembly is the leader of the largest coalition in the Assembly and drafts the rules of the Assembly, verifies votes, sends legislation to the President (for signing) or the Advisor to the President (for submitting into the official record), and represents the Assembly at-large. The Vice-President serves as the President of the Assembly, a largely cermonial role that involves presiding over Assembly sessions.
Legislation
The general citizen body of Deseret can submit proposals known at Citizens Resolutions (CR). In order for a proposal to be submitted to review by the Assembly, it must receive signatures of 5% the total population as of the most recent census, currently 2,927,615. Proposals are reviewed and debated, reworded, and re-drafted in committee and formally submitted as a bill, which the Assembly then votes on. If a proposal does not pass committee, it can be reintroduced to circumvent the committee if it receives more than 8,782,845 signatures (15%) (it must be the exact resolution), or it can pass committee automatically if it initially meet the 15% threshold. The citizen(s) who submitted the proposal can request specific Assembly members to submit the bill on their behalf. Following passage in the Assembly, the citizen body votes on the bill, requiring a simple majority of those who voted to pass. The time-span for when citizens can vote on legislation varies on the length and contents of the bill, being decided in the bill itself, but generally lasts around one or two days. If the Assembly does not pass a CR, it can still become law if three-quarters of participating citizens vote to pass it. CRs require Presidential approval to become law.
Assembly members can also introduce legislation, known as Assembly Resolutions (AR). ARs carry the same weight as CRs, but often take less time to be voted on. ARs are submitted by Assembly members, debated, reviewed, and voted on in committee, and then voted on by the entire Assembly. If it does not pass the Assembly it does not go to be voted on by the citizen body. If an AR does pass the Assembly, it goes to the citizen body for voting. If the citizen body does not pass a resolution, a 2/3 majority in the Assembly can pass the bill again. ARs require Presidential approval to become law.
The President or Vice-President can submit bills known as Presidential Resolutions (PR). A PR bypasses committee and goes for immediate vote in the Assembly, where it then follows the same steps as a CR from there. After being passed, a PR does not require presidential approval.
When the Speaker and the President both agree that a certain issue, event, or resolution/bill requires immediate action, they can require the Assembly to take it up in the form of an emergency resolution (ER). ERs can become law if they secure a majority of votes, but do not need to be voted on by the public. The Speaker and the President can jointly decide to terminate a law's special ER status (although it is still reffered to as an Emergency Resolution), allowing the people to vote on it and decide if it should be kept, amended, or repealed. ERs primarily deal with immediate military, economic, political, and social threats to Deseret or its people; however, there is no constitutional definition of what an ER must pertain to, only that the Speaker and President both jointly decide to give a resolution ER status. Existing CRs and ARs can moved to ER status.
The President can veto legislation, which can only be overruled with a 3/5 majority of the Assembly.
Voting in the Assembly is done with two methods. The first method of voting is the most popular, where Assembly members use buttons on their desks to vote 'For,' 'Against,' or to 'Abstain.' This method is used for most legislation. The second method entails Assembly members voicing their vote. This method is used in committees and leadership elections.
Impeachment, ratification
Articles of impeachment can be brought forth only by a member of the Assembly and not a general citizen. Impeachment must pass with a simple majority, where it is then reintroduced as an article of removal from office, which must receive a 3/5 majority to pass. All elected or appointed federal, state, and local officials can be impeached and removed from office.
Amendments to the constitutions can be introduced as CRs an ARs and require a 3/5 majority of citizens, a 2/3 majority of the Assembly, and Presidential approval to pass.
Committees
Main Page: Citizens Assembly Committees
The Assembly is responsible for forming a variety of committees responsible for overseeing specific duties and advancing legislation in their specific fields. The Speaker creates committees, whose composition is based on the party-composition of the house, whose members are chosen by their parties. Committees are given specific oversight over certain issues or fields and are where most legislation (CRs and ARs) must go through to undergo writing, revision, debate, and where they must pass to go to general vote on the Assembly floor. There are two types of committees, Parent committees (also called permanent or group committees) and sub-committees. Parent Committees are set in House rules and are over more broad subjects (the economy, social issues, etc.) than sub-committees. Parent committees receive legislation that apply to their broad subject and can overrule the decision of sub-committees to block or end legislation from progressing to the floor. Sub-committees focus on more specific issues (such as the energy sector of the economy, immigration, veterans, etc.). Sub-committees are created by the Speaker and are composed of 12 committee members, known as chairman, and a president, who heads and leads the committee. Parent committees are composed of 6 members and a president. Sub-committees are composed of two members from each of the six largest parties in the Assembly, with the president being from the largest party (if two or more parties hold the same number of seats then the party with the most votes is represented. If, somehow, at least two parties received equal votes, then the Speaker would decide), while parent committees are composed of two members from the two largest parties, with the president selected by the Speaker. Special committees are temporary committees formed for specific events or issues. They are independent of parent committees and are composed of eight members and a president from the eight largest parties, with the president chosen by the Speaker.
There are currently seven parent committees and 29 sub-committees. Members of the Assembly can hold a position in more than one committee. Legislation may go through several committees before going to general vote.
Committee on Economic Development
- Sub-Committee on Energy and Nuclear Power
- Sub-Committee on Agriculture and Forestry
- Sub-Committee on Mining Oversight
- Sub-Committee on the Technology Sector
- Sub-Committee on Manufacturing
- Sub-Committee on Fair Labor Practices
- Sub-Committee on Environmental Protection and Sustainability
- Sub-Committee on Economic Growth and Adaptation
- Sub-Committee on Transportation
Committee on Social Justice and Reform
- Sub-Committee on Religion
- Sub-Committee on the Protection of Rights
- Sub-Committee on Women's Rights and Advancements
- Sub-Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minority Rights
- Sub-Committee on the LGBTQIA+ Community
Committee on Foreign Affairs and Development
- Sub-Committee on Humanitarian Aid
- Sub-Committee on Foreign Welfare
- Sub-Committee on Exterior Threats
- Sub-Committee on Natural Disasters
Committee on the Military
- Sub-Committee on the National Guard
- Sub-Committee on the Coast Guard
- Sub-Committee on the Air Guard
- Sub-Committee on the United Nations Peacekeeping Force
- Sub-Committee on Veterans Affairs
- Sub-Committee on Homeland Security
Committee on Government and Elections
- Sub-Committee over the Executive Branch
- Sub-Committee over the Supreme Court
- Sub-Committee on Election Reform and Security
Committee on Justice and Supervision
- Sub-Committee on Law-Enforcement and Rehabilitation
- Sub-Committee on Drug Use
Committee on Oversight