Establishment of Institutions

Proposal:

The Legislative Branch should create each of the institutions by enacting a series of laws. As the most important aspects of each institution are identified, especially relating to its interaction with the government and the people, the Legislative Branch should amend the Constitution to include the establishment of each institution with an enumeration of its powers and limitations.

The law or the amendment should require the legislature to fund the institution each year with a minimum budget. To avoid using a specific number which would have to be continuously adjusted to stay relevant, the minimum funding of an institution should be set as a percentage of some other item, for example the budget for the operations of the legislative branch or executive branch. The percentage could be greater than 100% if an institution requires a larger budget than its reference point to be even minimally effective.

The executive branch shall nominate a director for each institution to serve a term of 10 years. A nomination shall require confirmation by a simple majority vote in the legislature.

If an institution is empowered by the legislature to create, update, and revoke regulations within its scope, such changes shall require confirmation by a simple majority vote in the legislature. The legislature shall not have the power to edit or revise the proposed regulations, nor to revoke any previously confirmed regulations, nor to enact any new regulations within the scope of the institution.

Intent:

The establishment of institutions by law and then by Constitutional amendment is intended to ensure that their important work continues into the future, protected from a reversal by an executive order or an abolishment by a legislature with less support than it took to enact the amendment.

The intent of the minimum budget is for future legislatures to enable the institution to operate at appropriate funding levels and but to prevent the legislature from completely de-funding the institution.

The legislature can still respond to extreme budget emergencies by reducing budgets all across the government, including the reference points, but not to a specific institution individually.

Institutions employ subject-matter experts and consult with other government offices and the public prior to proposing to create, update, or revoke regulations. To protect the public from an out-of-touch institution, all such changes to regulation require confirmation by the legislature. To protect the public from a legislature that refuses the advice of experts and attempts to draft its own regulations, the legislature is prohibited from creating, editing, or revoking regulations that would fall within the scope of an empowered institution and instead is limited to confirmation of regulation proposals by that institution. If there is a stand-off, the effect would merely be to slow things down until a consensus is reached wherein the institution proposes regulations that the legislature would confirm.

Discussion:

The establishment of institutions will help to protect them from frivolous attacks on their legitimacy.

For example, in the United States the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 required all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that significantly affects the environment. The following year, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order forming the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the EPA was later ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. However, executive orders can be rescinded by future administrations and committee hearings are not law. Those hearings should have been immediately followed by enacting a law establishing the EPA and enumerating its powers and limitations. The failure of the legislature to do that has left the EPA vulnerable to attacks on its legitimacy by people who would prefer less regulation so they can make more profits at the expense of the current and future public who will be left to struggle with the pollution and its effects.