Towards A New Politics

The text of Prime Minister, Gordon Brown's speech "Towards A New Politics" - which discusses a number of constitutional issues is available here.

Control Orders

Lord Lloyd of Berwick (A former Law Lord himself [1984-93] and Chair of an Inquiry into Legislation on Terrorism [1995]) is due to ask in the House of Lords this afternoon "what plans [Her Majesty's Government] have for phasing out control orders in the light of the unanimous decision of nine Lords of Appeal in Ordinary in Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No 3)."

This is the latest in a series of cases where the highest court in the UK (then the House of Lords Judicial Committee - which has subsequently become the UK Supreme Court) has ruled against Government attempts to restrict the activities of suspected but not convicted terrorists. The Court held that an individual in government control “must be given sufficient information about the allegations against him to enable him to give effective instructions in relation to those allegations. . . . Where, however, the open material consists purely of general assertions and the case against the controlee [individual held pursuant to a control order] is based solely or to a decisive degree on closed materials the requirements of a fair trial will not be satisfied, however cogent the case based on the closed materials may be.”

The full judgement can be read here

The Budget

Yesterday the President sent Congress details of the budget he would like for Fiscal Year 2011 (which begins on 1st October 2010). The most obvious contrast with the Budget presented by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer is that Congress has control of the process - and will mould its own budget (which the President hopes will be close to his proposal). In Britain Parliament will, more or less, rubber stamp the Chancellor's budget. A defeat for a British Government on its budget proposals would bring the Government down. A critique of the involvement of Parliament in the budgetary process from the Hansard Society can be read here.

CRS has produced a number of useful guides to the US budgetary process - which are available via the House of Representatives Rules Committee website. The key to understanding the process is the distinction between authorization and appropriation. Congress gives legal authority for the actions involving spending through the authorization process. The allocation of the money comes through the appropriation process. So for defence spending the Armed Services Committees (and some others) deal with the authorizing legislation - and the money is granted by the Appropriation Committees.

The Congressional Budget Office was set up by Congress to provide expert advice and analysis.

New Inter-Institutional Agreement

It is reported that last week agreement was reached on a new Inter-Institutional Agreement within the European Union. These agreements set out the powers and procedures of the institutions concerned. The one negotiated last week deals with the powers of the European Parliament - now that the Lisbon Treaty is in force. It governs relations between the Parliament and the European Commission for the 2010-2015 period. The IIA is due to be voted upon on 9th February.

You can read the EurActiv report here.

Harry Reid

When I was in the United States I took the opportunity to boost my library of autobiographies & biographies of current members of Congress. This week - after completing Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" - I began a programme of reading some of these works. This include books by or about John Lewis; Mitch McConnell; Barney Frank and Jim Webb. I have started with Harry Reid's "The Good Fight". Senator Reid represents the State he was born in (Nevada). In the book he describes growing up in Searchlight, a mining town. There are many insights into why he cares deeply about the healthcare issue.

I'm particularly interested in what legislators, especially whips, have to say about their work. In explaining why reform can take such a long time, Senator Reid says "Legislating is a process, a flurry of deals. What's impossible today is possible tomorrow, and sometimes you have to grind it out." Frustrating the the public - but a key truth about the involved process of negotiation which is central to the work of legislatures.

Senator Reid's website can be accessed here.