Senate Sleeps as People Lead
Written by Elio
If there was one word to define this term of the Senate thus far it would be "Sleepy".
Since the 93rd Senate was elected at the beginning of February, the perception of it from the Citizenry is that it has been slow, to say the least, with multiple comments from Citizens in EBC News' Mid-Term polling highlighting that their Senate feels "inactive", "less active", and even "dead". EBC News' further research in this area shows that this may be more than just a feeling. Since the selection of the Speaker on February 10th, the Senate has considered 8 matters, ranging from an amendment to the Line of Succession to Court Reform. Of these, two ended up Tabled, three are still ongoing discussions without a defined piece of legislation attached, one Amendment failed, and two are still in debate/vote. Across all matters, the Senate has had 106 posts in the Senatia, and 5 in the Swakistek Conference Hall, where only Speaker Cordova has engaged in any form of Oversight at all this term. Compared to prior Senates, this is already the lowest-activity Senate in months. EBC News has provided a breakdown below of the last 4 Senates for comparison:
On Matters Considered (outside of Selection of the Speaker, and regular Cabinet confirmations), this 93rd Senate is second to last, with only the 91st coming behind. On every other measure though, the 93rd Senate is in last place, often by a significant margin, and is already 65% down on the previous term in terms of Total Posts. A deeper dive on the matters considered by the Senate has yielded further findings of general inactivity and lack of involvement of the majority of Senators on most matters. The trends on this are broken down below:
The general themes evident in all of these matters is that, on the majority of the - albeit, very few - issues before the Senate, the majority of Senators are not engaging substantively or at all pre-vote/motion to table, and there is very little in the way of debate from those that do engage. Similarly, the trend is towards multi-week debates with very little engagement, with one matter (Senate Half Terms) sitting for 52 days (at time of writing) since the beginning of this term with only 4 Senators engaging, and only 11 posts between them. Additionally, of the 5 actual Bills before the Senate, 3 of them were not generated by the Senate themselves, but were passed to the Senate after votes by the People's Assembly - one of which (the Reasonable Delay of Amendments Act) the Senate rejected with only 3 Senators contributing to debate or consideration of the measure in any way before voting it down. On the one matter that the Senate was fairly swift and engaged on - the Shadow Ministry Oversight Program (SMOP), which sought to conduct increased oversight by assigning individual Senators to lead on each Ministry area - EBC News has found that only Speaker Cordova has engaged in any oversight of the Executive this term at all.
This is in distinction to the raft of activity lately by the People's Assembly which, under new Chair Igualla, has in the same period discussed 12 matters (a 50% increase on the Senate), passed 5 pieces of legislation/ordinance (a 400% increase on the Senate), and had 156 posts (a 47% increase on the Senate). This heralds a new era for the People's Assembly, which is often faced with questions of its relevancy to the region's governance, criticisms of its activity levels, and continual proposals to abolish it. A similar story is present also in the current Constitutional Convention that, whilst originally off to a slow start, has hosted 16 conversation topics (a 100% increase on the Senate), and had 223 posts (a 110% increase on the Senate), as well as engaged a range of different Citizens in its debates. In both the People's Assembly and the Constitutional Convention, it is the People - not the Senate - that have been the drivers of substantive discussions and debate over the structures and governance of our region, whilst the Senate looks to be left behind.
This stands in stark contrast to the platforms all Senators set out before Election Day. Senator Istillian said he was "eager to put my perspective forward", Senator Pichtonia noted that "the People's Assembly failed. I would favour a more engaging and democratic Senate in its stead", Speaker Cordova strongly stated his belief that "It's our duty as senators to conduct oversight of the executive", Senator SkyGreen spoke of his commitment to "post daily just to ensure that I'm up to date with everything", Senator Lime highlighted a range of reform ideas he wanted to get done - of the People's Assembly, the Circuit Court, and Weighted Voting, and Senator Fillet Minion similarly ran on reform initiatives including Term Limits on Officials. From the campaign threads of those who sought to, and managed to, get elected it would look like the Senate had ahead of it an engaging and active term full of lots of exciting new reform discussions - as of the time of writing, the majority of this is yet to materialise; or at least, not from the Senate.
With Citizens in both the People's Assembly and the Constitutional Convention outpacing our elected officials in the Senate on matters of discussion, on legislation passed, and on general engagement in matters of state, and with multiple Citizens expressing concern over Senate activity levels in EBC's mid-term polling, it is the Senate - not, as often claimed, the People's Assembly or the Convention - that is in a race against time before the end of this term to prove its relevancy and ability to lead. With 2 weeks left before the next election, it remains to be seen whether or not it will step up to the challenge.
