What State Duma deputies will work on during the spring session

The first plenary week of the Duma’s spring session begins on Monday. Deputies will have to approve official plans for the session at the first meeting, but the Duma factions have already decided on their priorities. United Russia members prioritize assistance to participants in the special military operation (SVO) and members of their families, the Social Revolutionaries focus on demography, the Communists want to change the economic system, the Liberal Democrats will pay special attention to fairness in payment for housing and communal services, and “New People” plan to deal with “ peaceful” development issues and protect pensioners from scammers.

The approximate program of legislative work, posted on January 12 in the Duma database, included several high-profile bills. Thus, in January, government amendments to the Criminal Code should be considered in the first reading, allowing for deferment of sentences for pregnant women, mothers of children under 14 years of age and single fathers. The first reading of another Cabinet draft aimed at implementing the decision of the Constitutional Court is planned for February. According to him, if errors and typos are found in the list of candidates for single-mandate constituencies that “do not allow one to reliably identify a citizen,” only these candidates will be removed from the elections, and not the list as a whole, as is the case now.

In February, consideration of the bill on “nalivayki”, adopted in the first reading on December 5, 2023, will continue. The initiative of a group of deputies of different factions and senators expands the powers of regions to limit the sale of alcohol in establishments located in apartment buildings. And plans for April include an initiative by a group of deputies led by the chairman of the Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Yampolskaya, designed to protect the Russian language from foreign borrowings. The bill involves limiting the use of foreign words in the public space, including in advertising and the media, as well as in the sale of goods.

The Duma factions also have their own plans for the session.

For United Russia (UR), the priority remains legislative support for SVO participants and members of their families, including the equalization of social support measures, first deputy head of the faction Dmitry Vyatkin shared with Kommersant. The Duma plans to consider one of these projects, on compulsory state insurance of volunteers, in the first reading in the first plenary week. “Also among our priority bills are establishing liability for trash streams and banning the dissemination of such information on the Internet, strengthening penalties for leaking personal data, and clarifying the provisions on extending the dacha amnesty,” said the deputy. In addition, United Russia will continue to work on the implementation of its “People’s Program”: for example, in the spring session, United Russia plans to implement one of its provisions, establishing a single definition of a large family for the entire country. Mr. Vyatkin also noted initiatives in the field of medicine aimed at strengthening primary care and expanding the availability of medical care for all citizens, including those living in hard-to-reach areas. “In the economy, our priority is strengthening technological sovereignty, supporting high-tech industries that solve both civilian and military problems, import substitution, and overcoming the consequences of sanctions,” said the first deputy head of the United Russia faction.

The communists, according to the first deputy leader of the Communist Party faction Nikolai Kolomeytsev, consider priorities “first of all, bills that would change the monetary and financial-economic system,” and will, in particular, insist on abandoning the budget rule and introducing a progressive tax scale. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has also prepared two important, in its opinion, initiatives in the field of state building: the draft Electoral Code and the fourth version of the bill on the Constitutional Assembly. “For thirty years, the current government has not introduced a single one, and we have already introduced four,” Mr. Kolomeytsev emphasized. “Our project has received wide support from constitutional lawyers.” The communists will also continue to lobby for the idea of ​​introducing a state monopoly on the production and sale of alcohol. “And, of course, we are convinced that if we are to work for the future, we need to adopt our bill “Education for All” and restore the system of vocational schools, which must be transferred from the Ministry of Education to sectoral subordination. We believe that it is necessary to adopt our law on guarantees of the first job,” added Nikolai Kolomeytsev.

The leader of the party and faction “A Just Russia – For Truth” (SRZP) Sergei Mironov said that the Socialist Revolutionaries will focus on promoting their demographic initiatives in the spring session. “Two of them are on the list of seven priority projects for the session. This is an initiative to introduce a monthly payment not lower than the subsistence level for children who do not have enough places in kindergartens and nurseries, and a program bill on a fair basic income for families with children – 10 thousand rubles each. per month for each member of a family raising children under 18 years of age. Only such measures of large-scale government support can reverse the difficult demographic situation. We will also insist on the adoption of our initiatives on a progressive scale of maternity capital and on a unified federal status and benefits for large families,” Mr. Mironov listed the main things. He also noted that the SRZP will continue legislative work to support the participants of the Northern Military District, and one of the priority projects involves the allocation of free land plots to combat veterans. The Socialist-Revolutionaries are also seeking to tighten migration legislation: one of the initiatives included in the SRZP list of priorities introduces a ban on the work of migrants in a number of socially significant industries, and in others limits the share of foreign workers to 5%. In addition, the Socialist Revolutionaries, like the Communists, advocate a progressive tax, proposing to increase the personal income tax rate to 18% for incomes over 50 million rubles. per year, and the funds received are sent to the “Defenders of the Fatherland” fund to support the participants of the Northern Military District. “In addition, we will continue to fight for the resumption of indexation of pensions for working pensioners and the abolition of the harmful pension reform. We will insist on increasing the salaries of public sector employees, the cost of living and the minimum wage,” Sergei Mironov promised.

For the LDPR, as its chairman Leonid Slutsky told Kommersant, one of the main directions of legislative activity will be the development and fine-tuning of mechanisms to ensure a reduction in the gap in the socio-economic development of the regions. “We will prepare bills and proposals to the executive authorities regarding the revision of the current system of distribution of taxes between the federation and its constituent entities, municipalities, as well as the equalization of salaries of public sector employees,” he explained. In addition, the faction will continue to work on projects to help SVO participants and their family members. The LDPR also plans to “pay special attention to the issue of fairness in payment for housing and communal services,” since citizens often turn to its deputies with complaints about unreasonable charges for housing and communal services.

Finally, the “New People” faction, as its press service told Kommersant, considers issues related to development to be one of its most important areas. “People invest all their money in apartments and take out loans. They need to be provided not only with square meters, but with a normal standard of living. Therefore, we have introduced bills that oblige developers to simultaneously rent out apartments and infrastructure: parks, kindergartens, schools. We will give municipal deputies the right to veto infill development. And for local residents, we will return public hearings: people themselves know better how to develop their area,” the press service noted. New People also intend to protect the older generation from scammers by introducing amendments to consider crimes against pensioners an aggravating circumstance. The faction also has a demographic proposal – to provide pregnant students with budget-funded places at the university.

Ksenia Veretennikova