this really should be in a government efficiency section. I did not see any categories where it fits
Summary
One issue with the U.S. system of laws and legislation is that we lack clear and organized separations between what is legislated, regulated and enforced at different levels of government. For companies, it means that there may be an assortment of conflicting local and federal regulations to sort through, and we also often see this redundance leading to jurisdictional disputes between regulatory or law enforcement agencies, ultimately reducing the effectiveness of enforcement. While there are many cases where redundance is a good thing, our government is not one of them, particularly because the tax-dollar value of the redundance has entirely diminishing returns; with added redundance, the regulatory environment becomes both worse and more expensive for companies and taxpayers alike.
Furthermore, many items that end up in federal legislation don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution, and yet they still force one. This creates laws and regulations which may be unenforceable under certain circumstances, or result in unjust enforcement in others. Laws like this shouldn’t exist - laws should not be created which cannot be enforced fairly and uniformly across the jurisdictions they affect.
Issues are also brought to federal legislators which have never been identified as a legitimate issue at any local or state level, essentially creating legislation and regulations or agencies where none were warranted to begin with. This is ultimately forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for programs nobody asked for.
The ultimate goal behind the proposal that follows, is to remove the federal government from everywhere it doesn’t belong - it should be the very tip on the pyramid of domestic policy, and should otherwise be focused on international law and national security. The federal government has no place in matters of culture, media, or education, and has shown itself completely counterproductive in matters of domestic regulation. The federal government is crushing the people instead of helping them, and they do so from a position where they can barely be held accountable.
To trim out layered redundancy and organize our legislative and regulatory structures in a way that minimizes bloat and overlap, as well as government overreach, while maximizing accountability of the government to the governed, I propose the following:
Proposal
A) New legislation needs to bubble up from the lowest localities. If an item can be legislated or regulated at a local or state level, it should then be the case that no federal legislation or regulations exist for the same. Before a piece of domestic federal legislation may be proposed, the following must be established:
- the legislation/regulation has been introduced at a state or local level AND it has been determined that no local or state agency or cooperation between local and state agencies exists or can be created which would cover the necessary jurisdiction to enforce it
- it has been determined that a federal agency exists or can be created which could cover the necessary jurisdiction to enforce the legislation
- a uniform federal legislation will not result in uneven burdens or advantages across communities or locales
- there is concrete and consistent evidence and firsthand testimony that a failure to enforce the regulation or legislation has resulted in harm to American people
B) Once states or local governments have been given (or recognize) the power to legislate an item, then all related federal legislation should be voided. (e.g. states have the ability to legislate and regulate marijuana, and thus the federal government should void any conflicting federal law or conflicting part of any federal law; states have the ability to legislate and regulate abortion, and thus no federal law should be created). Likewise, if it is determined that a federal law must be created, then redundant state and local laws should be voided.
C) Regulatory and law enforcement agencies must be compartmentalized to operate from within the communities and/or localities they serve. I.e. they should be fully aware of how enforcement affects their community and be empowered to make decisions based on that, and they should be fully accountable directly to the communities within which they operate. If an agency must exist to enforce laws or regulations, the agency should exist at the lowest government level, i.e. smallest locality possible. If legislation and/or agencies are dissolved at a federal level and turned to the states for enforcement, a compartmentalized federal agency can easily be converted to a local one by removing the federal layer of management. Likewise, local agencies can be combined into a federal one by simply adding a federal management layer. New federal agencies and federal jobs should only be created as a last resort.
D) In the event that redundant policies, regulations, legal jurisdictions or agencies are found to exist, the redundancies will be voided and removed from the top down - federal agencies, laws, and regulations are the first to be dissolved. Overlapping legal jurisdictions will be ceded to the most localized agency that can reasonably cover it.
E) in the event that federal legislation or regulation is found to unevenly affect localities or communities within the U.S., the legislation should be amended, or if an amendment cannot be made to make it fair and consistent then it should be struck from federal law and yielded to states for decision. A law which cannot be enforced uniformly across the entirety of its jurisdiction should not be a law for that jurisdiction.
F) Unenforceable laws, laws which are found not to be enforced at all, and laws which have no net positive effect on the community or have an overall negative affect on a community when enforced must be voided at every level. Laws which address issues not already identified and proven to be important to a statistically significant portion of the population must not be brought up for consideration. Laws which are found to be in direct conflict with the popular vote for a locality must be voided for that locality.