The government will begin to implement laws that have not yet been adopted

The White House published a message about new changes in internal government documents that allow the government to prepare draft regulatory legal acts implementing the provisions of bills adopted in the second reading by the State Duma - before the final approval of the basic legal norms by the lower house, their adoption by the Federation Council and signing by the president. Formally, we are not talking about interference in the competence of the legislative branch, much less in the competence of the head of state - but the project to speed up rule-making processes is based on the full confidence that there are no surprises in the Russian parliament.

The White House published yesterday the text of government decree N1025, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on October 8, “On Amendments to Certain Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation,” which changes government regulations and regulations on its legislative activities. So far, only the text of the resolution has been published, which does not contain appendices containing document amendments, and a reference to the resolution.

Changes to regulations are usually prepared by the government apparatus, now headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov (remember, he actively worked with the State Duma when he was deputy head of the presidential administration) - they relate to the process of the White House preparing its own acts for implementing bills. Now the government does not prepare (at least in the understanding of the White House regulations) such acts until the law is signed by the President of the Russian Federation - that is, it has previously passed three readings in the State Duma and been approved by the Federation Council. According to the text of the certificate, deputy prime ministers in their area of responsibility now have the right to give instructions on the development of future by-laws after the second reading of any bill - both submitted to the State Duma by the government (draft by-laws for them were prepared semi-officially before) and by other entities legislative initiative. In addition, the government, at the proposal of the federal department, will have the right to appeal to the State Duma with a proposal to set a time convenient for the government for the third reading of the bill. The project is convenient for the White House in solving, first of all, problems related to the implementation of the budget in by-laws - for the sake of them, the State Duma has repeatedly had to suspend certain articles of the Budget Code in recent years.

Formally, the provision does not violate the principle of separation of powers in any way: the second reading of the bill is, according to the State Duma regulations, the main one, after which mainly editorial changes are made to the text. The Federation Council retains the opportunity to block the project, just as the president does not sign it. Finally, in the event of any unexpected events and changes, the White House may simply not accept draft acts prepared in the new order. The innovations should make it easier for the White House to quickly implement “extra-urgent” laws, which have been adopted quite often since 2009 on the political initiative of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. However, the amendment of the regulations clearly does not normally imply any disagreements in the Federal Assembly, nor different opinions on the bill of the president, parliament and government.

Dmitry Butrin

Parliament is no place for doubt