Committees

[Caius Flavian]

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to see who among my fellow (and more Senior) Senators would be willing to form some committees in the near future.

There are three that I would like Caius to be apart of or form.

• Armed Forces
• Commerce
• Health, Education and Labor

Ideally these would be small to have concerted discussions among senators on bill proposals.
While of course any senator can push forward a bill
One born of collaborative effort that then is brought forth onto the floor would likely have stronger results.

As to the size of committees I do not have a solid number in mind, though I don't want to exclude any senator from such we can even make this a discussion in character on how to form committees.
I'm leaning toward the thought that Odd numbers make the bank in this case!

Let me know what you all think!

 

[Mantic Dorn]

[member="Caius Flavian"]

Paves ground for more political RP - *two thumbs up*

 

[Gael bar Ammon]

I'll revisit this later in more detail, but it's definitely something I'd be interested in helping flesh out.

 

[Gael bar Ammon]

Alrighty.

Given the size and interests of the Republic, I would definitely limit how many committees we have. While it's nice to have all our bases covered, we should only establish such committees that would have a practical application. I think Armed Forces and Commerce are a good start, but seeing as to how we have very few people actively RPing as just plain citizens of the Republic, the last may be a tad unnecessary.

I could see the creation of committees clashing with some of the up and coming ministries though as far as responsibilities go, so select committees (temporary committees created for a specific purpose) might be the way to go. A standing committee for ministry oversight would definitely be something good to have.

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Gael bar Ammon"]
[member="Mantic Dorn"]

Understandable for that last one on that perspective. I thought of it as simply a great challenge as to Systems right of sovereignty versus Republic's Right of Sovereignty. Universal healthcare? All that other good stuff such as education?

I'm just getting back from being somewhat LOA this last week cause of IRL stuff.

Anyways, I see there are a number of different discussions on the roles and responsibilities of the government.

Perhaps once the dust settles from this Invasion it would be best to revisit the Republic's charter and improve its legal processes.

In all honesty I see ministries as Executive seats within the Supreme Chancellors offices, whose positions would be appointed by the Supreme Chancellor and confirmed by the Senate.

There would be almost far to much power concentrated in the hands of some one or some planet to be wielding both Legislative powers and Executive powers.

The Republic's Legislative body is unicameral as far as I can tell and with ministries weilding executive power we'll likely run into the typically problem that Unicamerals run into

Checks and balances and all that good jazz otherwise we risk sweeping up into an autocratic state.

Though I can agree that this might bring about tedious bureaucracy I also see this as a means of adding more government involvement in development threads.

There should be standing committees for certain appropriations that are vital to sustaining a Galactic Government that provide oversight to both the executive ministries and actions of the military.

The Commerce Committee simply develops regulatory items and practices that provide Companies the opportunity to operate in Republic Space. Whatever Ministry deals in trade and commerce and all that will execute contracts which could or could not help companies grow in Tiers. The Committee can call on the

I guess the biggest issue I have right now in the way things sit in the Republic is that we don't necessarily have an annual budget.
In that I really don't see the need to generate an actual number but what I'm getting at is that every year the Fiscal Budget has to get approved in order to be enacted and carried out.

Everything inside of that budget then gets executed.

So discussions on whether we want to recruit more military personnel or shrink our military, if we want to build more star ships, build more civilian space stations and infrastructure or leave it up to individual worlds on building things on their own dime.
Those sort of discussions should take place.

Cause what it usually leads to is government contracting

• Want more transportation between worlds? We'll could have a nationalized company ran by the government to do so, or we could provide incentives for companies out there to expand into transporting (people and freight) around republic space.
• Want to build some warships? Big ones, little ones, shooty ones, and fast ones? Well we can contract (which as far as I am aware we have a contract with he Directorate and some companies) but we do so each year renews these contracts or we negotiate new terms on numbers of ships to be built and delivered.

Cause then it can result in a bill that the whole senate would get to look at and debate.

Senator A reads over the Armed Services Section after the Commerce Section and disagrees with appropriations on the cost of star bases in the budget.
Senator B rejects part of the bill for allowing companies less regulatory oversight

So on and so forth
Some people find this stuff boring, but that is literally the job of a legislative body is to make laws and typically being in control of the budget.

I guess the military example is the easiest but having a hearing from members of the Republic's military to a select group of Senators to better grasp and understand the needs to improve allows for the committee to go the Senate as a whole and make the case for why we need X number of star ships or we need to raise a new army.

Standing Committees should be made up of those with experience in these matters.

Going back to what I mean't about development threads.

These could be used as Miscellenous threads toward any Submission
A little Tier 2 Company gains a contract to transport freight and supplies from system X to Y and Z can be used to a means to go up in Tier.
A Company that wants to build ships for us can use a thread that specifically mentions their Company and the shipyard we want to procure for them to use to produce ships.
Also Commerce committee can call upon the Ministry of Justice on the enforcement of customs and tariffs

Again though this all would be best looked at In Character on the Senate floor though after a hard review of the Republic's Charter on roles and responsibilities.

 

[Martika Varta]

We can easily just invent committees as RP demands them.

The sale of Spaarti Creations came up at auction, so I made up the "Senate Appropriations Committee" with Martika as a part of it, and bought the corporation on behalf of the government. Now the GR owns Spaarti, and we can use it to R&D and produce medical biotechnologies based on cloning.

With the creation of a new Jedi Order / education system thanks to [member=Mantic Dorn], a Committee on Education is something him and I were literally just discussing. Basically, the government runs schools for FU's, with FU's of a variety of disciplines involved, Jedi, Grey's, etc.

They train Force Sensitive students in rudimentary Force talents, coupled with history, social education, traditional studies like sciences, etc, and then upon leaving the institution, these students are free to pursue high education, join the Jedi Order, military, public sector, etc.
A Committee of Education would oversee the funding and standards of this system.

[member=Caius Flavian]

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Geral Varta"]
[member="Mantic Dorn"]

Hey! So between myself and [member="Gael bar Ammon"] have been chatting it up as well more on this topic.

It can break up the Appropriations Committee into several components that per our legislative powers allows each concentrated group of Senators to mobilize our make believe money toward specific things.

Ideally each Committee should be encompassing a broad range of topics so this way its not to focused unless it needs to be focused.
So for example, Spaarti Corporation is now a nationalized company and any dealings or use of it should go through the Standing Commerce Committee.
It can however have a Select Committee specifically for it dealing with what to do with it.

In my original post I had the Idea for a Standing Committee on Health, Education and Labor
now it does not necessarily have to be just those or those rolled up together, but it can be something along those lines.

The following is some of what we have worked on and have kicked back and forth. I'm waiting for a moment to do an In Character instance on the Senate Floor to initiate it.

Spoiler

Senators,

I submit to you all for approval by an offical vote on the measure to aid in improving our Senate's system.
The formation of rules for Committees.

Standing Committees - Shall be Committees with specific roles and functions requiring a minimum of three Senators to seat it, with one of them Chairing the committee.
A standing committee shall be empowered with the legislative oversight over the executive functions.
-improve the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of governmental operations;
-evaluate programs and performance;
-detect and prevent poor administration, waste, abuse, arbitrary and capricious behavior, or illegal and unconstitutional conduct;
-protect civil liberties and constitutional rights;
-inform the general public and ensure that executive policies reflect the public interest;
-gather information to develop new legislative proposals or to amend existing statutes;
-ensure administrative compliance with legislative intent; and
-prevent executive encroachment on legislative authority and prerogatives.


Select Committees - Shall be Committees formed to with anything that any of the Standing Committees do not cover and also must meet a minimum of 3 Senators.
Select Committees are temporary while Standing are permanment.
Committees must always be of odd number and shall increase by a size of two if needed from the original five.

For now there shall be four Standing Committees, each as follows:
Armed Services Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:

1. Hypernautical and Space Borne activites associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations.
2. Common Defense and National Security
3. The Armed Forces of the Galactic Republic, Its Navy, its Army, and Special Forces
4. Military Intelligence and Special Operations
5. The appropriations of taxes, strategic and critical materials necessary for common defense and the Intelligence ministry.
6. Pay and priviliges of the members of the armed forces

Commerce Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:
1. Responsible for drafting economic policy for the executive agency to carry out
2. Protection of trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monoplies
3. Responsible for matters related to banks and banking
4. Fiancial aid to industry and commerce companies.
5. Issuance of Bonds and distribution of currency
6. Government Contracts
7. Consumer protection
8. Jurisdiction over all commodities from agriculutral to industrial.
9. Energy and all matters related to energy.
10. Appropriation and budget for the executive agency responsible for administering the above functions.

Foreign Relations Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:
1. Is charged with leading foreign-policy legislation in determining the Republic's stance with foreign nations.
2. Foreign aid progams
3. Confirmation or nomination of Senatorial envoys, ambassadors, diplomats, or counselors.
4. Confirmation of a System, Planet, or government, seeking to join the republic
5. Appropriations of taxes for the above functions.

Oversight and Accountability Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:

1. Protection of trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies
2. Civil liberties
3. Interstystem compacts
4. Immigration and naturalization
5. Bankruptcy, mutiny, espionage, and counterfeiting
6. Ovesight of the Justice Ministry all agencies under the Ministry.
7. Constitutional Amendments
8. Patents, Copyrights, trademarks
9. Taxation

Spoiler

I submit to you all for approval by an offical vote on the measure to aid in improving our Senate's system.
The formation of rules for Committees.

Standing Committees - Shall be Committees with specific roles and functions requiring a minimum of three Senators to seat it, with one of them Chairing the committee.
A standing committee shall be empowered with the legislative oversight over the executive functions in order to:
-improve the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of governmental operations;
-evaluate programs and performance;
-detect and prevent poor administration, waste and abuse of power, or illegal and unconstitutional conduct;
-protect civil liberties and constitutional rights;
-inform the general public and ensure that executive policies reflect the public interest;
-gather information to develop new legislative proposals or to amend existing statutes;
-ensure administrative compliance with legislative intent; and
-prevent executive encroachment on legislative authority and prerogatives.

Select Committees - Shall be Committees formed to with anything that any of the Standing Committees do not cover and also must meet a minimum of 3 Senators.
Select Committees are temporary while Standing are permanent.
Committees must always be of odd number and shall increase by a size of two if needed from the original five.

For now there shall be four Standing Committees, each as follows:

Armed Services Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:

1. Hypernautical and Spaceborne activites associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations.
2. Common Defense and National Security
3. The Armed Forces of the Galactic Republic, its Navy, its Army, and Special Forces
4. Military Intelligence and Special Operations
5. The appropriations of taxes, strategic and critical materials necessary for common defense and the Intelligence ministry.
6. Pay and privileges of the members of the armed forces
7. The Ministry of Intelligence

Commerce Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:
1. Responsible for drafting economic policy for to be approved by the Senate and enacted by the executive
2. Protection of trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monoplies
3. Responsible for matters related to banks and banking
4. Financial aid to private and public industries as needed
5. Government contracts with private companies and other factions
6. Consumer protection
9. Energy and all matters related to energy.
10. Issuance and protection of intellectual property rights
11. Appropriation and budget for the executive agency responsible for administering the above functions.

Foreign Relations Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:
1. Is charged with leading foreign-policy legislation in determining the Republic's stance with foreign nations.
2. Foreign aid programs
3. Confirmation or nomination of Senatorial envoys, ambassadors, diplomats, or counselors.
4. Confirmation of a System, Planet, or government, seeking to join the Republic

Oversight and Accountability Committee
All proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters relating to the following subjects
are referred to this committee:

1. Holding senatorial hearings on various matters including but not limited to: abuse of power, misappropriation or misuse of government resources, and government-involved discrepancies
2.
X. The Ministry of Justice

 

[Mantic Dorn]

[member="Geral Varta"] [member="Caius Flavian"]

If committees promote RP - from wwhere I am sitting this sounds great. Folk can be creative and come up with Committee ideas and get their own little turf to RP around. The Educational committee does sound like one that could oversee the Force Academy and perhaps manage funding etc.
???

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Geral Varta"][member="Gael bar Ammon"][member="Mantic Dorn"]

Precisely!

Not only would the Force User Academy (Non-Jedi FU) would fall under that Committee, but also the Knights of the Republic would fall under this Committee.

Not even just Force User but also any other sort of academy or university and such could fall under this.
It can be used as a mechanism of background fluff for world building. For example a planet that wants to modernize or improve its local capital city decides to seek funding to build a school/university well the Republic can help handwavium those funds to make their dreams come true and some little Twi'lek girl can read books (dataslates)

If Committees are formed as broad strokes it adds a lot more to the Senate's ability to simply do things without necessarily having to go through massive voting periods.

Ideally once I work a little more on the IC Constitution we might be able to shift the focus of introducing bills in concentrated doses on a Bi-annual basis so as to not overwhelm writers who have more than one character or muse. Of course we will have to wait and see how the story plays out of course!

 

[Martika Varta]

Here's my thinking, and don't get me wrong, I like the drafts that you and bar Ammon came up with. But I feel like we need something a little more fluid and adaptable.

What I'm thinking is instead of prescribing our committees up front, we merely utilize the committees from the RL U.S. Senate and leave them open for writers to adopt, like I adopted the Appropriations Committee, which anyone is free to join.

That way, we have a quick reference from wikipedia on what a committee consists of, rather than having to draft our own, and can instead focus on writing, rather than drafting.

We can also allow writers positions with only two committees at a time (which can be switched), so they have to go to other writers for cooperation on certain things, like funding for this or that, etc.

This allows us to remain much more fluid and adaptable.

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Geral Varta"]

Thank you for the input!!!

Well to be fair... I kinda already did take the 16 or so standing committees of the US Senate and condense them into four, so far!

I do like what you mean though

It looks like [member="Gael bar Ammon"] has made the move to get some interest in the idea. I like how he changed Commerce to Appropriations I guess we'll have to encompass everything. My idea is since credits are a handwavium thing was that each Committee had the legislative oversight to appropriate money rather than just one Committee responsible for it.

However this is totally why I've been kicking this idea around with everyone!

 

[Martika Varta]

I'm thinking the money shouldn't be the focus of Appropriations, but more a passive sort of permissions process for getting things done.

Obviously, I didn't ask anyone's permission when I bid on Spaarti and brought it into government ownership, but I do support the idea even so.

Even if it's just having to let the AC members know that you're wanting to do this or that helps us as a whole because it brings individual projects into the eye of the rest of the population. It gives us wider awareness of what we're all doing and keeps everyone in the loop.

We could simply drop an Appropriations thread where Senators can simply list acquisitions they've made, so we have a record of what we've got going on. If something truly concerning crops up, AC members can raise a red flag to the rest of the Senate.

The rest of the committees can be led by need; if there are two members on a committee who are on LOA or otherwise absent, then any Senator can pick up the slack themselves. We have to remember that we may have only 12-14 writers in the Senate, but it's bound to have hundreds of members as NPC's.

 

[Gael bar Ammon]

. To address your concerns, I'm personally fine limiting people to two committees for the reasons you outlined. I was having people express interest in two chair positions though because there can be only one, so it's kind of like an alternative to who would like to chair it.
The reason I prefer having standing committees as opposed to creating them as needed is because that gives anyone the means to unilaterally make decisions on behalf of the Republic. Standing makes for better RP and a more democratic process.

 

[Martika Varta]

[member="Gael bar Ammon"]

Having a set of standing committees is great! And it would be regressive to unmake the committees we've all pretty much agreed would be used anyways.
I guess I'm just suggesting we not try to develop/design all our committees at once and aside from the core set, allow others add more when needed. That's all.

As for the dichotomy between a committee on economics and appropriations, they are two very different areas of government. Appropriations covers all discretionary spending, which covers the gamut of Senate activities; it's a general coverage of all areas of spending.

Committees on economics specifically monitor and report on the economy and offer suggestions on how to improve the economy.

As I think about it though, I would prefer to roll Education and Health Care into the same committee, and Chair that one. I have a background in health care IRL, which would prove useful to helping structure RP.

 

[Gael bar Ammon]

I'd like for the SAC to cover all realms of commerce from the economy to budgeting and spending. I think we can all agree that Appropriations Committee has a much better ring to it.

Infrastructure Management Committee? Think we could pack education, health care, other workings of government in there?

I'd love to see you on the Foreign Relations Committee too. In that Cry for Help thread you're doing outstanding. I think you'd thrive there, but that's just my opinion.

As far as creating them as needed, I agree on that. Let's start with five and if we need more and have the people to do it, we can always make more.

 

[Martika Varta]

This all serves OOC organization, which shouldn't be the first concern. Instead we should focus on facilitating RP and drafting a government that better guides the IC writing environment.

There's also an issue of the committee's responsibilities themselves. Economics, Finance, Education, these are all separate entities for a reason: They all have their own foci. Appropriations specifically handles another tier of government, it's a general guiding committee for funding regulation, of which economics and finance are not a part. It's important, I feel, I feel that our system reflects the IC realities of canon.

Keep in mind also that these committees add no actual substance to our writing operations, so we shouldn't get caught up in the organization aspect of it all. I see this consolidation more as an attempt to cover as many aspects of the government as possible, which is not something we really need.

As such, I would recommend we minimize the amount of consolidation we commit to. I feel this will go further in promoting and diversifying RP than consolidating all of our government functions into as few operations as possible. Doing so would simply not reflect the diverse nature of a governing body as large and expansive as a galactic government like the Republic.

What I would recommend is we leave the committees as they are now. Writers can adopt positions for the aspects of government they feel a particular affinity for, like my affinity for health care.

Thank you for your laurels! Your alterations were similarly well written and enjoyable to read.

I have really liked that thread, and am enjoying the opportunity to make a truly authentic-feeling politician out of Martika Varta. I have interests in other areas, but would gladly loan Martika out for advising or negotiation. I'm more focused on interacting with the Senate as a whole, however; thus he'll be spending more of his time in the Senate chamber.

 

[Caius Flavian]

This all serves OOC organization, which shouldn't be the first concern. Instead we should focus on facilitating RP and drafting a government that better guides the IC writing environment.

There's also an issue of the committee's responsibilities themselves. Economics, Finance, Education, these are all separate entities for a reason: They all have their own foci. Appropriations specifically handles another tier of government, it's a general guiding committee for funding regulation, of which economics and finance are not a part. It's important, I feel, I feel that our system reflects the IC realities of canon.

Keep in mind also that these committees add no actual substance to our writing operations, so we shouldn't get caught up in the organization aspect of it all. I see this consolidation more as an attempt to cover as many aspects of the government as possible, which is not something we really need.

As such, I would recommend we minimize the amount of consolidation we commit to. I feel this will go further in promoting and diversifying RP than consolidating all of our government functions into as few operations as possible. Doing so would simply not reflect the diverse nature of a governing body as large and expansive as a galactic government like the Republic.

What I would recommend is we leave the committees as they are now. Writers can adopt positions for the aspects of government they feel a particular affinity for, like my affinity for health care.

Thank you for your laurels! Your alterations were similarly well written and enjoyable to read.

I have really liked that thread, and am enjoying the opportunity to make a truly authentic-feeling politician out of Martika Varta. I have interests in other areas, but would gladly loan Martika out for advising or negotiation. I'm more focused on interacting with the Senate as a whole, however; thus he'll be spending more of his time in the Senate chamber.

Oversight would be nice.


Also, although I've no intention of being placed on it, a technology/research committee does not feel like a particularly bad idea. We could use some people dedicated to the techie stuff in the Senate.

To address certain language differences in Committees.

Yes I love, absolutely love the idea of the modeling the committees around the US Senate's.

However as this is the initial flagship start to this I feel it is necessary to keep the committees small in number but broad and encompassing.
From that we can grow Select Committees which can eventually turn into Standing Committees that focus over certain things once we get more active and participatory Senator characters.

The Chronic issue I've noticed in my research is the up and down peaks of participants in this particular area of The Republic as a major faction.

Keeping things concentrated in a small number committees with broad abilities allows a lot of freedom and encourages our small pool of active PC Senators to get out there and RP some things like we did with Spaarti.

[member="Gael bar Ammon"]

 

[Martika Varta]

Without going back and reading my own words (I may end up contradicting myself here) what Caius is saying is more or less what I was supporting. I think at first I was arguing against consolidation, but I guess what I really meant was a more middle ground. Forgive the inaccuracy of my language.

-Core set of Committees
-The ability/option to disseminate/reconsolidate based on increases and decreases in faction government activity.

Sound good?

[Member=Gael bar Ammon] | [member=Caius Flavian]

 

[Caius Flavian]

[member="Geral Varta"]

Indeed! That is concisely what apparently we have all been beating about the bush!

 

[Martika Varta]

[member="Caius Flavian"]

I think we got wrapped up talking too fancy. Lol