The office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko summed up the legislative activities of the White House for 2023

The office of Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the Government Dmitry Grigorenko summed up the legislative activities of the White House for 2023. According to these data, the number of violations and delays in the preparation of bills, which deputies previously often complained about, has decreased significantly. Chairman of the State Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov believes that the government has indeed begun to work with parliament “in a more disciplined manner.”

In 2023, the Duma adopted a record number of federal laws – 693, of which 332 were introduced by the government (in 2022, the Cabinet introduced 389 projects). At the same time, the government more often than in 2022 sent amendments to bills of deputies and senators adopted in the first reading: last year it proposed changes to 102 bills, and a year earlier – to 91. This follows from a message from the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko on the results of the government’s legislative activities.

The message also emphasizes that the government has improved the performance of its ongoing work, reducing the number of violations and delays in the preparation of bills and other regulations. Let us note that at the end of 2022, deputies actually complained about the delay in the development of by-laws in the White House. As noted in the message from the Deputy Prime Minister’s office, at the end of 2023, the number of by-laws adopted in violation of deadlines decreased almost seven times, decreasing from 17% (301 acts) to 2.5% (38). “Thus, the preparation of by-laws was synchronized with the adoption of the laws themselves, which means that federal laws today begin to work immediately after entry,” the document says.

The number of bills submitted by the government to the Duma in violation of deadlines decreased by 75% – from 59 to 15. And postponements of deadlines for introducing initiatives into the lower house of parliament decreased by 54% – 44 cases instead of 95. In addition, in 2023, the the share of bills returned to federal ministries and departments – from 37% to 20%.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, the improvement in all these indicators occurred “thanks to the improvement in the quality of planning and executive discipline of ministries and departments, including through the introduction of digital tools.” Among other reasons, regular meetings with state secretaries of federal executive authorities are also mentioned, where possible risks of missing deadlines for the development of bills and by-laws are discussed. In addition, a working group has been created at the government office, which weekly reviews documents that are “risky” from the point of view of missing deadlines. In 2023, it considered 897 issues related to the preparation of bills and by-laws.

Chairman of the Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov (United Russia) confirmed to Kommersant that the government has become less likely to miss deadlines for submitting documents to the lower house: “This is true. They began to work more disciplined. There are fewer violations of deadlines; there are practically no cases when we do not receive feedback on time. Grigorenko put this work under strict monitoring.” Mr. Morozov explains the decrease in the number of bills introduced by the government in 2023 compared to 2022 by the specifics of the year before: “In 2022, there were a lot of government initiatives in connection with the start of a special operation and the need to resist sanctions. Now the main decisions have already been made.”

Increasing the efficiency of government lawmaking is associated with the reconfiguration of internal procedures for auto-coordination between ministries, believes Pavel Sklyanchuk, a member of the Russian Public Relations Association: “If a position is not expressed on time, then it is considered that there are no disagreements. In addition, there have been fewer negative reviews of the initiatives of deputies and senators, and the deadlines for their preparation have become less delayed – according to the regulations, a month is given for feedback. Representatives of ministries of at least the rank of deputy minister began to attend committee meetings in the Duma more often, so many issues began to be resolved faster and the speed of consideration increased.” All these changes have led to the fact that White House initiatives are not delayed after being introduced into parliament, the expert adds: “Currently there are one fifth of these in the Duma portfolio, or 200 projects, this is a historical minimum. Some of them, which are more than a few years old, may be recalled for revision. Given the recent presidential address, we can expect a large number of new initiatives from the government this year.”

Ksenia Veretennikova