Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760

Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760

14th Cortes Federales
Long title	An Act to relieve the cost of living for the households of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie; to provide a reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of essential food and domestic energy; to make direct relief payments for the cost of household energy, and to revive and make permanent the family allowance uplift and the household establishment grant; to protect the value of wages, pensions, and benefits against inflation; to establish the Federal Consumer Protection Agency and to lower prices through competition and fair-pricing measures; to require that prices be shown in full and to ease the changing of suppliers; to lower the cost of medicines through reference pricing and common purchase; among other purposes.
Introduced by	The Council of State (Government of the Federal Accord), tabled by the Secretary of Social Security and National Solidarity Ana Yuisa Caguax (WPP, within the Alliance), co-sponsored by Treasury Secretary Tomás Iñiguez (CGA) and Trade and Industry Secretary Jacqueline Betancourt (DSP, within the Alliance)
Extent	Entire Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie
Dates
Royal Assent	10.V.1760 AN
Commencement	10.V.1760 AN
Other legislation
Amendments	None
Related legislation	People's Deal General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760 Economic Emergency and Recovery Act, 1758 Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706 Soil Stewardship and Food Abundance Act, 1759 Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759

The Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760 (Alexandrian: Loi sur le soulagement du coût de la vie, 1760; Martino: Ley de Alivio del Costo de Vida, 1760) is a law of Nouvelle Alexandrie that relieves the cost of living for households across the Federation. It is the measure the Federal Accord places first among the Government's economic charges, and the third of the five bills of the Government's first legislative program in the 14th Cortes Federales.

The Act lowers the price of essentials by a reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of basic food and domestic energy; it makes a direct payment toward the cost of household energy and revives the family allowance uplift and household establishment grant that lapsed with the recovery; it protects the value of wages, pensions, and benefits against inflation; and it establishes the Federal Consumer Protection Agency to lower prices through competition and fair-pricing measures. Its relief is met from the appropriation of the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760 and not by new borrowing, in keeping with the undertaking the Government gave on the confidence of the Assembly.

The Act answers the argument on which the general election of 1759 was fought. The economy was still weighed down by the Recession of 1757, with unemployment near nine percent and the cost of living pressing on households. The platform on which the Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie stood in 1759, its People's Deal revised for the recovery, had promised relief on the price of energy and food together with measures to lower consumer prices through competition. The Act legislates the structure of that relief, of which the budget carries the cost, and leaves the housing commitment to its own measure, the National Housing Reform and Expansion Act, 1760.

Background

The cost of living led the 1759 general election and the argument did not end with it. Through the recovery from the Recession of 1757 the recovery dashboard recorded a cost-of-living index of 106.2, rising against incomes while unemployment held at 8.7 percent, with the price of food and of household energy among the sharpest pressures on households.

The relief that the recovery had provided was temporary. The Economic Emergency and Recovery Act, 1758 had carried a family allowance uplift and a marriage establishment grant among its emergency authorities, and those authorities expired at the close of 1759 AN by the Act's own terms, leaving households without them as the new term began. On the price side the Federation's law offered little: value added tax stood at a single rate of ten percent with no reduced band for food or energy, no federal statute relieved the cost of household energy, and while the federal minimum wage rose with inflation each year under the Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706, no like protection held the value of pensions and benefits. Nor was there a consumer-protection or competition statute in force, or an agency to enforce one, though the Department of Trade and Industry carried an antitrust bureau and named a consumer-protection agency it had never been given.

The Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759 made the cost of living the Government's first economic charge and tied it to the Alliance's program for the recovery, the People's Deal revised in the platform on which the Alliance stood in 1759, which had proposed a time-limited household relief measure for the cost of energy and food and competition measures to lower consumer prices, funded from revenue rather than borrowing. The Government undertook on the confidence of the Assembly that this relief would be met out of the appropriation and not by lifting the debt brake or drawing the frozen tranche of the recovery's borrowing. The budget of the new Government, the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760, carried the cost of the relief and the making-work-pay reduction in the tax on low earners, and this Act sets out the structure by which the relief is given.

Key provisions

The Act is arranged in seven parts. It lowers the price of essentials, makes direct relief payments to households, protects the value of wages and of pensions and benefits against inflation, lowers prices through competition and consumer protection, orders the funds, and records its constitutional basis.

Prices and the cost of essentials

A reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of basic food and domestic energy lowers the price of essentials, provided by this Act and carried in the budget at half the standard rate. The basket is defined and published by the Secretary of the Treasury, reviewed each year, and confined to basic food and to the energy a household uses in the home. The Act also requires the price of essentials to be shown by the unit, so a rise in price cannot be concealed in a smaller package, and it requires that a price shown to a consumer be the whole price payable, so that mandatory fees cannot be added after the fact.

Household relief payments

A direct payment toward the cost of household energy is paid through the Department of Social Security and National Solidarity to households of low and middle income, targeted by income. The Act revives the family allowance uplift and the recovery Act's marriage establishment grant, the grant extended to any newly established household, and makes them a standing part of the law rather than an emergency measure. It continues the work of the Healthy Homes Fund in lowering the energy a home uses, so that lower consumption follows the relief on price.

Making work pay and the cost-of-living lock

The making-work-pay reduction in the tax on low earners that the budget funds is carried by this Act. It affirms the annual uprating of the federal minimum wage with inflation under the Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706 and directs that the wage be reviewed against the cost of living, as the National Workers' Rights Charter requires. And it closes the gap the law had left between wages and the rest with a cost-of-living lock that raises pensions and the core benefits with inflation each year, on the model the minimum wage has followed since 1710 AN.

Competition, consumer protection, and fair prices

The Federal Consumer Protection Agency is established as an independent statutory body, one the Department of Trade and Industry had named but never been given, to protect consumers and to lower prices. The Agency reviews the markets in which a few firms hold most of the trade and where prices to consumers are high, and recommends the remedies that competition requires. It makes it simple for a household to change its energy, banking, or communications supplier and to compare suppliers' prices, guards against the unconscionable pricing of essentials in a shortage or an emergency, within the economic freedom the Proclamation of Punta Santiago guarantees, and carries a national framework for the pricing of medicines that builds on the National Drug Pricing Scheme, setting reference prices and buying medicines in common for the public programs to bring down their cost. On food the Act acts with the Soil Stewardship and Food Abundance Act, 1759 rather than in place of it, drawn to complement its measures for the price of food and not to duplicate them.

Funds and coordination

The relief of this Act is met from the appropriation of the budget and not by new borrowing. The reduced rate of value added tax is carried in the budget without widening the deficit; the relief payments, the cost-of-living lock, and the Agency are funded within the departmental appropriations; and the Federal Budget and Costing Office established by the budget costs the relief and reports on it each year.

Constitutional basis

The Act rests on the Proclamation of Punta Santiago and on the standing law of the Federation. Its tax measures are laid by the Cortes Federales by Act under Article 16, by ability to pay; its relief payments and the family allowance rest on the federal power of national solidarity; and its wage and benefit measures build on the federal law of wages and of social security. Its competition and consumer measures are framed to respect the economic freedom guaranteed by Article 22, guarding against unconscionable pricing rather than setting prices, and its powers are exercised by regulations laid before the Cortes and, where a Region administers or is affected, by consultation and by agreement for the shared exercise of powers.

Provisions in outline

The Act by Part

Part	Articles	Substance
I. Citation and interpretation	1–3	Short title; the definitions; and the Act's relationship to the budget, to the Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706, and to the Soil Stewardship and Food Abundance Act, 1759.
II. Prices and the cost of essentials	4–6	A reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of basic food and domestic energy; the basket defined and reviewed by the Treasury; unit-price transparency.
III. Household relief payments	7–9	A direct energy-cost rebate paid through Social Security; the family allowance uplift and household establishment grant revived and made permanent, read with the budget's child wealth account; the Healthy Homes efficiency work continued.
IV. Making work pay and the cost-of-living lock	10–12	The making-work-pay reduction in the tax on low earners; the minimum wage affirmed and reviewed against the cost of living, the review read with the budget's sectoral bargaining pilot; a permanent inflation-uprating of pensions and core benefits.
V. Competition, consumer protection, and fair prices	13–18	The Federal Consumer Protection Agency established; a competition review of concentrated markets and the ease of switching supplier; whole-price display, so the price shown is the whole price payable; a guard against unconscionable pricing of essentials; a national pharmaceutical pricing framework of reference prices and joint purchase; coordination with the food Act.
VI. Funds and coordination	19–20	Relief met from the appropriation and not by borrowing; oversight, the annual cost-of-living report, and evaluation by the costing office.
VII. Basis, regulation, commencement	21–23	The constitutional basis; the power to make regulations; and commencement, the reduced rate, the rebate, and the Agency brought in on appointed days.

Legislative progress

The Council of State introduced the bill on 12.II.1760 AN, tabled by the Secretary of Social Security and National Solidarity Ana Yuisa Caguax. The Federal Assembly gave it a third reading on 4.V.1760 AN and carried it by 475 votes to 294, with 32 abstentions; the Chamber of Peers concurred on 7.V.1760 AN by 56 to 54, with 8 abstentions, the closest division of the sitting; and King Sinchi Roca II granted Royal Assent on 10.V.1760 AN.

While the bill was before the Cortes, the Premier stood up a standing committee under the National Economic Council to publish a regular reading of the price of essentials and to follow the delivery of the Government's economic promises. The committee carried no relief of its own, but it prefigured the price reporting and the annual cost-of-living report the Act would require. In the second regular IOP/NBC News poll of the year, taken 20 to 22.IV.1760 AN while the bill was still before the Cortes, the cost of living stood as the leading concern of the country at thirty-nine percent.

Legislative progress

Stage	Date	Chamber	Action	Votes (Y-N-A)	Details
1	12.II.1760 AN	Federal Assembly	Introduction	-	Introduced by the Council of State; tabled by Sec. of Social Security Ana Yuisa Caguax, co-sponsored by Treasury Sec. Tomás Iñiguez and Trade and Industry Sec. Jacqueline Betancourt
2	-	Federal Assembly	Committee report	-	Budget and Finances Committee; no separate committee date is recorded
3	4.V.1760 AN	Federal Assembly	Final division	475-294-32	Passed; sent to the Chamber of Peers
4	7.V.1760 AN	Chamber of Peers	Concurrence	56-54-8	Concurred without amendment; the closest division of the sitting
5	10.V.1760 AN	-	Royal Assent	-	Signed into law by King Sinchi Roca II

Bill as submitted to the Hopper of the Federal Assembly, 1760 AN

Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760

THE READING OF
A
BILL
TO
relieve the cost of living for the households of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie; to provide a reduced rate of value added tax on a basket of essential food and domestic energy; to make direct relief payments for the cost of household energy, and to revive and make permanent the family allowance uplift and the household establishment grant; to protect the value of wages, pensions, and benefits against inflation; to establish the Federal Consumer Protection Agency and to lower prices through competition and fair-pricing measures; to require that prices be shown in full and to ease the changing of suppliers; to lower the cost of medicines through reference pricing and common purchase; among other purposes.

Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760

Presented by the Council of State
Ordered, by the Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie,
to be Printed.

BE IT ENACTED by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Cortes Federales, in this present session assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

ARTICLE I
CITATION AND INTERPRETATION

Article 1: Citation.

1. This Act may be cited as the "Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760".

Article 2: Interpretation.

1. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
   1. "the Department" means the Department of Social Security and National Solidarity, and "the Secretary" means its Secretary;
   2. "the budget" means the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760; "the recovery Act" means the Economic Emergency and Recovery Act, 1758; "the wage Act" means the Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706; and "the food Act" means the Soil Stewardship and Food Abundance Act, 1759;
   3. "the Costing Office" means the Federal Budget and Costing Office established by Article 32 of the budget;
   4. "the Agency" means the Federal Consumer Protection Agency established by Article 13;
   5. "essential food" means basic and staple foods for household consumption, and "domestic energy" means the electricity, gas, and heating a household uses in the home;
   6. "the essentials basket" means the basket of essential food and domestic energy defined and published by the Secretary of the Treasury under Article 5;
   7. "core benefits" means the pensions and the unemployment, disability, family, and solidarity benefits administered under the Social Solidarity system that the Secretary designates as core;
   8. "a concentrated market" means a market in which a small number of firms hold most of the trade;
   9. "the general index of consumer prices" means the index of that name maintained by the Nouvelle Alexandrie Statistics Bureau.

Article 3: Relationship to the budget and to other Acts.

1. The relief of this Act is met from the appropriations and the tax provisions of the budget and not by new borrowing. The reduced rate of value added tax under Article 4 is carried in the budget.
2. This Act amends the wage Act to the extent provided by Article 11, and rests for the family allowance and the relief payments on the federal power of national solidarity under the Cortes Federales Act, 1694.
3. On the price of food this Act is read with the food Act, and Article 18 provides for their coordination.

ARTICLE II
PRICES AND THE COST OF ESSENTIALS

Article 4: Reduced rate of value added tax on essentials.

1. There is applied to the essentials basket a reduced rate of value added tax of five per centum (5%), being half the standard rate.
2. The reduced rate is carried in the budget and takes effect from the day appointed under Article 23.

Article 5: The essentials basket.

1. The Secretary of the Treasury must define and publish the essentials basket, confined to essential food and to domestic energy, must review it each year, and must lay the basket and each revision before the Cortes Federales.
2. In defining the basket the Secretary of the Treasury must have regard to the goods that weigh most in the cost of living of households of low and middle income.

Article 6: Price transparency.

1. The price of essential food and of domestic energy must be shown to the consumer by a standard unit of quantity.
2. The Agency must make and enforce the rules for unit pricing under this Article, and must publish typical prices of the essentials basket.

ARTICLE III
HOUSEHOLD RELIEF PAYMENTS

Article 7: Household energy-cost rebate.

1. The Department must make a direct payment toward the cost of household energy to households of low and middle income, targeted by household income.
2. The Secretary must set and publish the amount of the payment and the income thresholds for it, within the appropriation of the budget, and must have regard to the number of persons in the household and to the cost of energy in the Region.

Article 8: Family allowance uplift and household establishment grant.

1. The uplift to the family allowance for each dependent child, and the marriage establishment grant of Article 8 of the recovery Act, which expired at the close of 1759 AN, are revived and made a standing part of the law.
2. The marriage establishment grant is extended by this Act to any newly established household, and must not exceed NAX€15,000.
3. The Department must administer the uplift and the grant within the appropriation of the budget, must set and publish their amounts, and must uprate them under the cost-of-living lock of Article 12.
4. The uplift to the family allowance is read together with the child wealth account referred for costing by Article 18 of the budget, and the account is not counted against the household in the assessment of the family allowance or of any relief under this Act.

Article 9: Household energy efficiency.

1. The work of the Healthy Homes Fund in lowering the energy a home uses, by insulation and by efficiency, is continued.
2. The Secretary must coordinate that work with the energy-assistance programs of the Regions.

ARTICLE IV
MAKING WORK PAY AND THE COST-OF-LIVING LOCK

Article 10: Making work pay.

1. The reduction in the tax on the earnings of low-income workers provided by Article 17 of the budget is carried by this Act. The reduction is funded by the compliance measure of the budget and is not a charge on the deficit.

Article 11: The minimum wage.

1. The annual adjustment of the federal minimum wage for inflation under Article 2 of the wage Act is affirmed and continued.
2. The wage Act is amended to require that the Secretary of Labor review the federal minimum wage each year against the cost of living, having regard to the basic needs of workers and their families under the National Workers' Rights Charter, and report the review to the Cortes.
3. The review under paragraph 2 is conducted alongside the sectoral bargaining pilot established by Article 23 of the budget, under which a tripartite wage board may set for a sector a floor above the statutory minimum.

Article 12: The cost-of-living lock.

1. On the first day of each year the Department must increase the rate of each pension and of each core benefit by the increase in the general index of consumer prices over the preceding year.
2. Where the general index of consumer prices has not risen in the preceding year, a pension or benefit must not be reduced under this Article.
3. The Secretary must designate the core benefits to which the lock applies, must lay the designation before the Cortes, and must administer the lock within the appropriation of the budget.

ARTICLE V
COMPETITION, CONSUMER PROTECTION, AND FAIR PRICES

Article 13: The Federal Consumer Protection Agency.

1. There is established the Federal Consumer Protection Agency, an independent statutory body, to protect consumers, to lower prices through competition and fair pricing, and to carry out the functions given it by this Act. The Agency succeeds to the consumer-protection agency named in the Department of Trade and Industry.
2. The head of the Agency is appointed by the Speaker of the Federal Assembly on the recommendation of the Budget and Finances Committee, for a fixed term of six (6) years, and may be removed only by a two-thirds vote of the Federal Assembly for cause.
3. The Agency must enforce the rules for unit pricing under Article 6 and for the whole-price display under Article 15, conduct the competition review and provide for the ease of switching under Article 14, guard against unconscionable pricing under Article 16, and administer the pharmaceutical pricing framework under Article 17; and must receive the complaints of consumers and report to the Cortes each year.
4. The Agency must work with the Antitrust and Market Competitiveness Bureau of the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Secretary of Trade and Industry must lay each report of the Agency before the Cortes.

Article 14: Competition review of concentrated markets.

1. The Agency must review the concentrated markets in which prices to consumers are high, and must report to the Cortes on the state of competition in them and on the remedies that would lower prices, including the remedies within the powers of the Federation and those it recommends to the Regions.
2. To lower prices in the markets for household energy, for banking, and for electronic communications, the Agency must secure that a consumer may change supplier simply and without penalty, and must provide or approve a public means by which a consumer may compare the prices and the terms of suppliers.
3. The Secretary of Trade and Industry must answer each report of the Agency and state the action the Government will take upon it.

Article 15: Whole prices and transparent display.

1. The price advertised or offered to a consumer for a good or a service must be the whole price payable, including every mandatory fee and charge; a fee that a consumer cannot reasonably avoid must not be added after the price is first shown.
2. The Agency must make and enforce the rules for the whole-price display under this Article.

Article 16: Unconscionable pricing of essentials.

1. Where the Government has declared a shortage or an emergency in an essential good, a person must not charge for that good a price that is grossly excessive in the circumstances.
2. The Agency must enforce this Article. Nothing in this Article empowers the setting of prices in the ordinary course of trade, and the economic freedom guaranteed by Article 22 of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago is preserved.

Article 17: National pharmaceutical pricing framework.

1. There is established a national framework for the pricing of medicines, to bring down the cost of medication to households, under which the Agency, with the Department and the authorities responsible for health, may negotiate the prices of medicines and publish reference prices.
2. The framework builds on the National Drug Pricing Scheme and provides for the setting of a reference price for medicines that are therapeutically equivalent, for the central tender and joint purchase of medicines for the public health programs, and for the substitution of an equivalent lower-cost medicine unless a prescriber directs otherwise on medical grounds.
3. The framework must have regard to the supply of medicines and to the value they give.

Article 18: Coordination with the food Act.

1. On the price of food this Act acts with the food Act and not in place of it. The food component of the essentials basket under Article 5 must be coordinated with the programs of the food Act.
2. Where the food Act is not yet in force, the Secretary must provide by regulation that the food relief of this Act stands until it is.

ARTICLE VI
FUNDS AND COORDINATION

Article 19: Funding from the appropriation.

1. The relief of this Act is met from the appropriations and the tax provisions of the budget and not by new borrowing, and no part of it is met by lifting the debt brake or by drawing the frozen tranche of the recovery's borrowing.
2. The reduced rate of value added tax under Article 4 is provided within the envelope of the budget and without widening its deficit; the relief payments, the family allowance, the cost-of-living lock, and the Agency are funded within the departmental appropriations of the budget.

Article 20: Oversight and reporting.

1. The Costing Office must cost the relief of this Act, must evaluate it by its results, and must report to the Cortes where a measure does not achieve its purpose, with a view to its reform or ending, in keeping with the Parap Principles.
2. The Secretary must lay before the Cortes each year a report on the cost of living, following the movement of the general index of consumer prices and of the price of the essentials basket, and on the relief given under this Act.

ARTICLE VII
CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS, REGULATIONS, AND COMMENCEMENT

Article 21: Constitutional basis.

1. This Act rests on the Proclamation of Punta Santiago and on the standing law of the Federation. Its tax measures are laid by the Cortes Federales by Act under Article 16, by ability to pay; its relief payments and the family allowance rest on the federal power of national solidarity under the Cortes Federales Act, 1694; and its wage and benefit measures build on the wage Act and on the Social Solidarity system.
2. The competition and consumer measures of this Act are framed to respect the economic freedom guaranteed by Article 22 of the Proclamation, guarding against unconscionable pricing rather than setting prices in the ordinary course of trade.

Article 22: Regulations, consultation, and shared exercise.

1. The Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury may make regulations to give effect to this Act. Regulations under this Act must be laid before the Cortes Federales and are subject to annulment by a resolution of the Federal Assembly.
2. Where this Act is administered by the Regions or touches a matter within their powers, the Secretary must proceed by consultation with the Regions and, so far as the shared exercise of powers is required, by agreement under Article 2 of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago.

Article 23: Commencement and application.

1. This Act applies to all of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
2. This Act does not become law unless it has been given Royal Assent by H.M. King Sinchi Roca II, and must be published in the Federal Gazette and made publicly available within seven (7) days of Royal Assent.
3. The cost-of-living lock of Article 12 takes effect from the first day of the year following the Royal Assent. The Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury must by order appoint the days on which the reduced rate of Article 4, the household energy-cost rebate of Article 7, and the establishment of the Agency of Article 13 take effect, and must appoint them not later than one year after the Royal Assent.
4. In so far as a provision of this Act depends on an appropriation or a tax provision of the budget, it operates as the budget provides and from the commencement of the budget.
5. In the event any provision or part of this Act is found to be invalid or unenforceable, only that particular provision or part so found, and not the entire Act, is inoperative.

Amendments

No amendments to date.

Voting record

Under the Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759 the three governing parties, together holding 448 of the 801 seats, were committed to the Government's legislative program, of which this Act was a part. On the final division of 4.V.1760 AN the Federal Assembly carried the bill by 475 votes to 294, with 32 abstentions, the largest majority of the three economic bills.

Federal Assembly final reading (4.V.1760 AN)

Notable votes on the Cost of Living Relief Act, 1760 AN

Deputy	Region	Party	Vote	Role/Notes
Ana Yuisa Caguax	Boriquén	WPP		Secretary of Social Security and National Solidarity; sponsor of the Act
Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves	Santander	DSP		Premier; the Act was a government measure
José Manuel Montero	Wechua Nation	FHP		Leader of the Opposition; the Federal Humanists opposed the bill
Fred Strong	North Lyrica	FHP		Former Vice-Premier and Secretary of Defense
Sumaili Humahuaca	Wechua Nation	FHP		Former Secretary of Justice
Francisco Gabaza	Santander	FCP		Leader of the Federal Consensus Party; supported passage under the Accord
Cao Qiang	Alduria	FCP		Special Counselor to the Council of State
Tomás Iñiguez	North Lyrica	CGA		Treasury Secretary; Civic Governance Alliance floor leader
Piti Gándara	Alduria	Independent		Led the independents backing the Government

Vote summary by party

Federal Assembly final reading, 4.V.1760 AN

Political party	Yes	No	Abstain/absent	Total	% Support
Democratic Socialist Party	232	0	0	232	100%
Wakara People's Party	28	0	0	28	100%
Civic Governance Alliance	95	0	0	95	100%
Federal Consensus Party	93	0	0	93	100%
Federal Humanist Party	0	293	0	293	0%
Republican Party of Oportia	0	0	10	10	0%
Independent	27	1	22	50	54%
Total	475	294	32	801	59.3%

Analysis

The three coalition parties voted as a bloc, and the whole of the Federal Humanist Party opposition voted against, with no Humanist crossing. The Republican Party of Oportia abstained. The cost-of-living relief drew the widest independent support of the Government's three economic bills: twenty-seven of the fifty independents backed it, one opposed it, and twenty-two abstained, the thirteen led by Piti Gándara among the supporters as before. The Assembly majority was the largest of the three, though the measure met its closest test in the upper house.

Chamber of Peers

The Chamber of Peers, the appointed upper house of mostly crossbench members, concurred on 7.V.1760 AN by 56 votes to 54, with 8 abstentions, the closest division of the sitting. As a revising house the Chamber may delay or amend an ordinary bill but cannot block one, and a bill on which it takes no decision within sixty days is deemed passed; it made no amendment and concurred by two votes. The Federal Humanist Party peers drew enough crossbenchers to bring the vote within two of defeat, the nearest the opposition came to turning back any of the Government's first program.

Royal Assent

King Sinchi Roca II granted Royal Assent on 10.V.1760 AN.

Aftermath

The cost-of-living lock on pensions and core benefits was set to take effect from the first day of the year following the Assent, while the reduced rate of value added tax on essentials, the household energy-cost rebate, and the Federal Consumer Protection Agency were left to be brought in on days the Secretary and the Treasury would appoint within a year. The Act placed the price-relief and consumer chapters of the People's Deal onto the statute book, its cost met from the appropriation of the budget rather than by new borrowing.

See also

• NBC Newsfeed/1760
• People's Deal
• General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760
• National Housing Reform and Expansion Act, 1760
• Right and Standards at Work Act, 1706
• Soil Stewardship and Food Abundance Act, 1759
• Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759