All laws passed by the outgoing Duma of the sixth convocation and approved by the Federation Council, signed by the President, follows from the data of the official portal of legal information. traditionally (as in 2014 and 2015) conducted a study of initiatives taken by the Parliament before the summer recess, and found out who in Russia is the main legislator.
The record for “printer”
By the end of the work, in its last session, the deputies of the state Duma of the sixth convocation adopted a record number of laws. For the spring session was accepted 384 of the act, 182 the document more than in the autumn session. The last record was set in 2014, when the results of the spring session was made 295 of the laws. For the same period in 2015 adopted 278 of the laws.
Before the end of the sixth convocation of the state Duma, President Vladimir Putin advised the deputies not to rush when making laws. “It should not be a hasty, superficial approaches to the consideration and adoption of legislative acts,” said the President, speaking at the closing session. The most resonant bills were passed in the last week of meetings is the “anti-terrorist package” United Russia deputies Irina Yarovaya and a presidential package of laws on the national guard. With the latter an unprecedented event happened: the President signed a document different from what was posted on the website of the Parliament after the third reading.
A large number of adopted laws — this is a common situation for the end of the convocation, the deputies seek to complete the job and intensifitsiruetsa work laws, says Deputy Chairman of the faction of the just Russia Mikhail Yemelyanov.
However, statistics show otherwise. Published on the website of the state Duma of the information on the previous convocations (available data of the second through sixth convocations) that in the last session before the end of a convocation of the deputies did not take more laws than the average in the period of work. Sometimes frowned upon even less paperwork than in other sessions: the last session of the third convocation the state Duma passed 65 laws, the lowest rate among all sessions of the Parliament.
Steady increase in the number of bills going from session to session, said associate Professor of the Institute of social Sciences of Ranepa Catherine Shulman. According to her, this is because it is easier to spend all the bills through the Duma, where United Russia has a majority and can take any action not consistent with any other faction.
The legislation centre
Chief legislator Russia by the end of the spring session once again became the government, bypassing parliamentarians on a number of initiatives. Of the 384 adopted laws 193 (50.2 per cent) were government, 123 (32%) — the Deputy. Parliamentarians often introduced bills — 950 made in the last session of the documents only 163 were from the government — but the effectiveness of the passage of the parliamentary initiatives is traditionally lower than that of the President and the government. The President for the spring session introduced 19 bills, the Duma managed to pass them all (just the Parliament adopted in the spring of 26 presidential proposals, including those remaining from previous sessions).
“This is the practice of most countries of the world. Laws are adopted by the majority in Parliament, and it at Pro-government party, United Russia,” explained Emelyanov.
Last spring session, the government also initiated more than half of the adopted laws (148 of 278, is 53.2 per cent). In 2014, parliamentarians for the first time in many years exceeded the government on the number of adopted laws (125 vs 120).
In Russia, a rather complicated system of approvals for government bills, notes Shulman. To be submitted to the Duma as a government, the project must undergo public discussion and consideration by the government Commission, and the projects that have passed through this sieve, we have an almost complete guarantee of adoption (there are exceptions, but they are rare). Often not to go this difficult way, where you can meet other government authors, agencies make their initiative through one of its members, says an expert. According to her, government initiatives so much, “because all regulation, including minor issues, is through Federal laws.
But some controversial government initiatives was taken immediately. So it was in the spring session with the law that classifies caravans and tent cities to mass stock. The government introduced it at the end of September 2015, the relevant Committee supported the project in early December, but was soon postponed for the spring session: the fall of the document associated with held nationwide protests of truckers. In the end, the amendments were adopted in late February by the votes of United Russia.
Delayed adoption of the government project on the application of unified methods of calculation of the cost of evacuation vehicle. In the first reading the document was adopted in June of last year, and in the final a year later. The delay was due to the amendments, United Russia deputies Vyacheslav Lysakova, which allows them to take the evacuated vehicles from spetsstavki to pay the evacuation of cars.
However, fundamental to the government a draft of a partial classification of their work adopted at the end of the convocation, has not found resistance in the state Duma. The Cabinet of Ministers proposed to discuss at its meetings, decisions on state borrowing and the sale of Federal government property. The project did not cause censures in the constitutional Committee and was adopted by the Duma with the support of the faction “United Russia” and LDPR. The amendments will reduce the possibilities of parliamentary control over the measures the government decisions, as in the meetings may involve representatives of both chambers of Parliament, said the lawyers of the Federation Council.
Deputies also practiced at the end of the session the introduction of controversial amendments to the government bills of a technical nature, thus accelerating their adoption and avoiding discussion. So it was with the amendment that permits be established within natural reserves of the territory in which you conduct business introduced by the Chairman of the Committee on natural resources Vladimir Kashin (Communist party) and his Deputy Valery Yazev (United Russia). This can be used for building resorts in circumvention of environmental regulations, environmentalists feared. The amendment was made to the governmental bill establishing a transitional period for waste disposal facilities in the Crimea.
In the same way held its amendment, the deputies Andrei Lugovoi (LDPR) and Vladimir Burmatov (“United Russia”), who offers to oblige state and municipal officials, and candidates for these positions to report their accounts in social networks. These changes were spelled out in the amendments to the government bill clarifying eligibility requirements for state and municipal employees.
Seven laws for the opposition
The greatest legislative activity of the opposition factions have shown of the liberal democratic party — members have made in the last session, 36 bills on the second place — “Fair Russia” (32), the third — the Communist party (23). The same trend is observed for the convocation, the analysis of passage of bills prepared by the apparatus of the state Duma.
Opposition factions have traditionally been able to hold a total of seven of its laws: the liberal democratic party achieved the adoption of the four, the Communist party — two and “Fair Russia” — one. The most notorious initiative of the liberal democratic party — bill introduced, headed by party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, introduced limits for campaigning.
Known was the bill the Communist party, against whom they voted, once finalized, United Russia for the second reading. Initially the Communists proposed to admit to the polling stations of not more than five observers from each candidate, however, for the second reading of the project of United Russia’s constitutional Committee has introduced the so-called serfdom to observers not more than two observers from the party or the candidate, pre-assigned to specific sectors.
The socialist-revolutionaries held in this session only one, but is sensitive to deputies the bill. In the spring the state Duma has unexpectedly passed the law about deprivation of mandates of deputies-truants, which was introduced in the summer of 2015 deputies the socialist-revolutionaries, headed by party leader Sergey Mironov.
Collective work
Of the 123 bills that have made the deputies and which was finally adopted, about half made by teams of authors from different factions (the second half is signed only by Russia). Most often, the United Russia party acted in collaboration with the Communists — together, they signed two dozen of the new laws. In the second place, the Union of United Russia and the socialist-revolutionaries (11 laws), the deputies from the liberal democratic party and the majority party has signed three successful projects. The office of the Duma in his analysis of the passage of bills in the Duma of the sixth convocation marks overall growth in the number of legislative initiatives submitted jointly by the deputies — members of different factions.
Representatives from the four factions introduced in the last session of the four acts that became laws, including a law clarifying the definition of political activities for NGOs. Last spring such laws have been seven.
Some criticized business bills were introduced by members of different factions, but without the participation of United Russia. These include the much-debated law, equating the news aggregators to media: it was held by the Communist Alexander Yushchenko and Eser Alexey Kazakov. A law prohibiting foreign companies to measure television audience in Russia, was brought by the Deputy from LDPR Andrei Lugovoi. Through the Duma the law passed with lightning speed: from the moment of entry to adoption was only 16 days. “Tax on Google” (the introduction of VAT for foreign IT companies) offered the same meadow and Vladimir Parahin (“Fair Russia”). According to sources in the Duma, all of these projects were originally initiated by the presidential administration.
The sixth convocation as a whole was a record both in the number of laws passed and the number of introduced bills. In total, 2012-2016 were introduced in Parliament 6012 bills, an average of 13 projects in MP (in the previous convocations had 9-11 bills on the MP all the time). However, and deputies worked longer than five years and not four years as previously. Adopted the sixth convocation of the state Duma of the laws of 1817 (fifth — 1608, others — less).
State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin, summing up the results of the sixth convocation, said that the Duma following the results of work of the sixth convocation got rid of the nickname “mad printer”, given to her by the opposition in 2012.
“Mad printer is not only about the number of laws, but also about their quality. The state Duma adopts many ill-conceived laws, bordering on obscurantism,” — said the opposition MP Dmitry Gudkov. The Parliament easily adopts the governmental and presidential initiatives because “he is dependent and is a support group of the government and the President,” Gudkov insists.
