Repeal Year
Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:19:00 GMT
A post over at Russ Nelson's blog about the tendency for politicians to do "something" reminded me about an idea I posted elsewhere I called "Repeal Year".
The basic idea is this: for each biennium, a legislative session would be divided in two halves - the first for repealing old legislation, the next for enacting new legislation. In the event of a national/state emergency, both houses could vote by a supermajority (3/5) to enact a single cohesive bill during Repeal Year.
Obviously two-year budgets are required, but that's a good thing, as New Hampshire has shown.
The major effect here is that the old, crufty legislation that's only taken out when desperate prosecutors can't accuse a man of any other crime, would be quickly eliminated, and legislators could be "doing something" by making government more efficient and less onerous.
Thoughts?
