Legislation Introduction Thread

[True Democrat]

Marijuana Legalization and Taxation Act[/i]

§ 1 The possession, sale and consumption of marijuana and the plants needed for its processing, shall not be criminalized by the federal government of Atlasia.

§ 2 All federal activities related with it shall be immediately shut down, and the money currently appropriated to them shall be used for:

     A. The construction of treatment centres for alcohol, marijuana,
         and other drug abuses
     B. The fight against illegal drugs

§3 All convicts by federal courts of the crimes repealed on this bill, shall be given amnesty to the punishment awarded to them by the said courts.

§4. Taxes on marijuana shall be set in the annual budget. Individual regions may set their own taxes on marijuana as they see fit.

I'm glad to see a form of my old bill is coming back alive.  I would like to see the tax put back on the bill though.

[True Democrat]

I know it's similar to the Voting System Reform Act, but I think it's needed:

The New Members Needed Act

Preamble

Whereas, the need for new members is apparent in Atlasia because of dwindling membership and the unopposed Senate and Gubernatorial races,

The Senate hereby acknowledges the need to attract new members to Atlasia.

Section One: Forming a Commission

1.   The President shall hereby appoint a commission composed the Secretary of Forum Affairs, the Deputy Secretary of Forum Affiars, one Senator, one Supreme Court Justice, and one citizen of Atlasia who holds no position in the federal government.
2.   The commission, after being appointed by the President, must be approved the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
3.   The members of the Commission will decide among themselves who will chair the Commission, by any means they see fit.

Section Two: The Role of the Commission

1.   The Commission shall discuss any way it feels possible to attract new members to the forum including but not limited to sending representatives to other political forums.
2.   The Commission may conduct these discussions in any way that they see fit.

Section Three: Findings

1.   At the time the commission feels it has reached its conclusion it shall draw up a report with all of its findings and present it the Senate of Atlasia.  The Chairman will issue the report for the which the Senate will use to pass further legislation for this issue.
2.   Once the Chairman has delivered his report, the Commission will disband.

[True Democrat]

I took this right out of a real life bill because, well, I thought it was a good idea, and I'm not very good at writing bills that deal with a lot of technical stuff.  I added some stuff though, see if you can figure it out. 

Military Enlargement Bill of 2005

To provide a temporary increase in the minimum end strength level for active duty personnel for the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force, and for other purposes.

      Be it enacted by the Senate of the Republic of Atlasia,

SECTION 1. TEMPORARY INCREASE IN MINIMUM END STRENGTH LEVEL FOR THE ARMY, MARINE CORPS, AND AIR FORCE.

      1. The size of Army on active duty shall be not less than 522,400 of which no less than 50% of the increase shall be an increase in Special Operations Forces;

     2.  The size of the Marine Corps on active duty shall be not less than 190,000 of which no less than 50% of the increase shall be an increase in Special Operations Forces; and

      3.  The size of the Air Force on active duty shall be not less than 388,000 of which no less than 50% of the increase shall be an increase in Special Operations Forces.'.

I changed it to Emsworth's ideas for how it should be written, but I'm still not sure on how to get the cost.

[True Democrat]

The Free Palestine Act

1. The Republic of Atlasia condemns the use of terrorism by groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas in trying to destroy the nation of Israel and to kill innocent Israeli people.

2. The Republic of Atlasia deplores the nation of Israel for using curfews, walls, and other freedom restricting measures on the Palestinian people.

3. The Republic of Atlasia hereby recognizes the nation of Palestine as being made up by Gaza Strip and West Bank upon the condemnation of terrorism by top Palestinian officials.

4. The Republic of Atlasia hereby calls upon the United Nations, and more specifically Israel to recognize Palestine after the said conditions are met.

5. If the said conditions are met and Israel still does not recognize Palestine, the Republic of Atlasia will hereby withhold 40% of military aid to Israel and 5% more aid will be witheld for every month Israel does not recognize Palestine.

I know, MUN style (without the heading The Republic of Atlasia:) but so what. 

[True Democrat]

Would anyone like to join me in introducing a free trade bill for all of the Americas (nations in CAFTA, NAFTA, plus Brazil, Argentina and a couple of other South American countries)?  The only problem is writing it.  I mean, CAFTA was hundreds of pages long.  Anyone know how this could be done?

[True Democrat]

Please withdraw the Palestine crap.

Why?

[True Democrat]

1. The Republic of Atlasia condemns the use of terrorism by groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas in trying to destroy the nation of Israel and to kill innocent Israeli people.

Okay

2. The Republic of Atlasia deplores the nation of Israel for using curfews, walls, and other freedom restricting measures on the Palestinian people.

"Walls" are the only real thing keeping the suicide attacks down to a bare minimum lately. To denounce a nation's steps to protect itself is absurd.

3. The Republic of Atlasia hereby recognizes the nation of Palestine as being made up by Gaza Strip and West Bank upon the condemnation of terrorism by top Palestinian officials.

Or maybe when the hostilities end. Not when the PA makes a half assed declaration.

4. The Republic of Atlasia hereby calls upon the United Nations, and more specifically Israel to recognize Palestine after the said conditions are met.

As above

5. If the said conditions are met and Israel still does not recognize Palestine, the Republic of Atlasia will hereby withhold 40% of military aid to Israel and 5% more aid will be witheld for every month Israel does not recognize Palestine.

Great, so if Israel doesn't do what we want, even though it's not in their best interest, we cut off an arbitrary amount of military aid.

I can understand some of your comments.  I believe the part about declaring against terrorism should be changed to making an effort to stop terrorism, as determined by the Senate or UNSC or something.  The fact is, what the Palestinians are doing is horrible, and that should be stopped.  But the everyday Palestinian person does not do this stuff, and they deserve their own nation.

[True Democrat]

The average Palestinian may not do it, but they elect members of Hamas to represent them as their leaders, so I wouldn't put them wholly outside the blame.

Also, notice I used the word "condemn" for suicide bombers and "deplore" for Israel's antics.

[True Democrat]

Unified Electoral Code

Written by: Peter Bell
Sponsors: True Independent, Sam Spade

Section 1: Votes

1. In their vote in the Elections to the Senate and the Presidency, each voter shall list some, none, or all of the candidates in the voter's order of preference for them.
2. If no numbering of the preferences is stated, then the candidate at the top of the list shall be presumed to be the first preference, the candidate on the second line of the list shall be presumed to be the second preference, and so on.
3. A voter may cast a write-in vote in any election, except a runoff election.
4. In order to write-in a candidate, the voter shall not be required to explicitly specify that his or her vote is for a write-in candidate.
5. In order for write-in votes for a candidate to qualify as countable votes, the person written-in must formally accept the write-in candidacy before the end of voting in the given election.
6. A voter may vote for "None of the Above" in any election, except a runoff election. Any voter who votes for "None of the Above" may do so only as a first preference; any and all lower preferences of the voter shall be ignored.


Section 2: Determination of the Winner

1. If any candidate shall gain a majority of highest preference votes, then that candidate shall be declared the winner of the election.
2. If no candidate has a majority of highest preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first preferences shall be eliminated, and his or her votes redistributed according to the next-highest preferences of the voters.
3. If, after the implementation of Clause 2 of this Section, any candidate shall have a majority of the highest preference votes, then that candidate shall be declared the winner of the election. If no such candidate shall exist, then Clause 2 of this Section shall be implemented again until such a candidate does exist, or until all candidates have the same number of highest preference votes.
4. If two or more candidates are tied for the least number of highest preference votes, but none of those candidates are tied for the greatest number of highest preference votes, then the following procedure shall be used to determine which candidate is eliminated:
    i. The candidate with the least total number of preferences expressed by voters shall be eliminated.
    ii. The Senate shall vote on which candidate to eliminate, with the Vice President being able to cast a tie-breaking vote if necessary.


Section 3: Run-off Elections

If all remaining candidates shall have the same number of highest preference votes, then the following procedure shall be used to break the tie:

1. A runoff shall be held beginning at midnight Eastern Standard Time on the first Friday after the election, and ending 72 hours thereafter.
2. Those candidates who have tied shall be automatically entered onto the ballot. No other candidacies shall be allowed.
3. Voters shall only be able to cast a vote for one candidate.
4. If any candidate shall gain a majority of the votes cast, then he shall be declared winner.


Section 4: Sudden Death Tie Breaking

If Section 3 fails to yield a winner then candidates shall have the option of using one of the following methods to break the tie:

1. Number Guessing

    i. The President shall choose an integer between one and ten and shall secretly communicate this number to the Secretary of Forum Affairs and to the Chief Justice. Once receipt of this number by both parties is confirmed, the candidates in the tie shall then guess the original number and communicate this guess to the three officials without revealing their guess to others.
 
    ii. Whichever candidate guesses closest to the number shall be declared the winner of the tie. In the event that two or more guesses are equidistant from the original number, this shall result in a tie, and the process shall be repeated until this event does not occur.

    iii. In the event that any of the office holders listed either are themselves candidates present in the tie or are not present to fulfill their duty, those in the aforementioned situation shall be replaced by the highest office holder in the following list who is not a candidate present in the tie and who is present to fulfill the duty:

Vice President
Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs
President Pro Tempore
Secretary of State
Attorney General
Secretary of Defense
Secretary of the Treasury
Senior Associate Justice
Junior Associate Justice
District 1 Senator
District 2 Senator
District 3 Senator
District 4 Senator
District 5 Senator
Mideast Senator
Midwest Senator
Northeast Senator
Pacific Senator
Southeast Senator

    iv. In the event that all office holders listed in Clause iii either are candidates in the tie or are not present to fulfill the duty, the President shall appoint one to three citizens able to fulfill the duty, depending on how many are needed to fill the vacant positions, and the citizen(s) shall then be required to be approved by the Senate by a majority vote before the number shall be selected.

2. Term Splitting

The candidates in the tie shall agree upon a schedule according to which the candidates shall divide the term among themselves. The schedule shall be allowed to be whatever the candidates agree upon, provided that its total length does not exceed the term to which a candidate would have been elected to had he won in his own right.

3. Governor's Vote

The Governors of the several Regions shall each vote for one of the candidates in the tie; If one candidate achieves an absolute majority, then he shall be declared victor. If no candidate obtains such a majority, then the Governors shall have continuous re-votes until such a candidate exists.

4. Failure to Agree

If within one week of the necessity of Sudden Death Tie Breaking being known, the candidates have not agreed on a method to break the tie, then the method described in Clause 3 shall be used to break the tie.


Section 5: None of the Above

If, in an election, the None of the Above option shall have gained more votes than each candidate, then a new election shall be held under the following procedure

1. The new election shall be held beginning at midnight Eastern Standard Time on the second Friday after the election, and ending 72 hours thereafter.
2. None of the candidates defeated by the None of the Above option in the original may be declared candidates in the new election. However, a voter may still write-in any such candidate.
3. The candidacy declaration deadline for the new election shall be the same as for special elections.
4. Except as regards Clause 2 of this Section, all provisions of Section 1 of this Act shall apply to the new election.


Section 6: Applicability

Any instance of the word "candidate" in Sections 1 through 5 shall be read as "ticket" in the case of Presidential elections.

(continued below)

[True Democrat]

 Section 7: Administration of Voting Booths

1. Whenever possible, the Secretary of Forum Affairs, or the Deputy Secretary of Forum Affairs, shall be the administrator of the voting booth. If both shall be absent or unable to administer the voting booth, then the President shall designate an executive officer to do so instead.
2. The administrator of a voting booth shall be free to design the ballot as he or she sees fit, as long as the content of the ballot is clear and unambiguous.
3. The administrator of a voting booth shall post links to all relevant statute regarding electoral law on the ballot.


Section 8: Certification of Election Results

1. When the voting period has expired, the administrator of the voting booth or a moderator of the Forum shall lock the thread containing the voting booth. The thread shall not be unlocked except to enter the certification of the election result onto the thread.
2. Certification of the election result shall be conducted as soon as humanly possible after the voting booth shall have closed by the administrator of the voting booth. If the administrator of the voting booth shall not be available to conduct such certification, then he or she shall designate another executive officer of the federal government to carry out such certification in his stead.
3. In certifying the result the administrator shall list all those votes which he or she has discounted, and the reasons for these votes being discounted. The voting booth administrator shall discount all votes that are invalid under the law, and shall only count those remaining votes for which he or she is able to make a reasonable determination as to the intent of the voter.
4. Once certification of an election result has occurred it may not be amended or rescinded except on the basis of a Court order.


Section 9: Concession of Victory

1. If a candidate shall concede his or her victory of a Senate election after the certification of the election result, then the candidate with the next greatest number of highest preference votes in that election shall then be declared victor.
2. If both members of a Presidential ticket shall concede their victory in the Presidential election after the certification of the election result, then the members of the ticket with the next greatest number of highest preference votes in that election shall then be declared victors.
3. If a victor who has conceded shall wish to retract his or her concession, then he or she shall only be able to do so with the permission of the newly declared victor.
4. Concessions made before the certification of election results, or on or after the date on which the newly elected official is due to be sworn in, are of no legal effect whatsoever.


Section 10: Statute of Limitation

1. Lawsuits challenging the validity of certified election results shall only be valid if filed with the Supreme Court within one week of the certification of such results.
2. Lawsuits challenging the validity of election results certified on or before 4 July, 2005 shall not be valid.


Section 11: Electoral Crimes

1. The act of in some way interfering or tampering with the Number Guessing option of Sudden Death Tie Breaking to grant an unfair advantage to one of the tied candidates or tickets is hereby declared a crime against the Republic of Atlasia. Any person found guilty of such a charge shall have their voting rights removed for up to 8 months. Trials will be conducted according to the provisions set in place by the Omnibus Criminal Law Act.


Section 12: Federal Activity Requirements

1. All those persons who have posted at least 25 times in the 8 weeks (56 days) prior to the commencement of an election shall be defined as active for the purposes of that election.
2. Those persons considered inactive (defined as not active) shall not be qualified to vote in a particular election.
3.  Anyone who has cast an absentee ballot shall be regarded as an active voter, provided he or she fulfills the definition by the time the election commences for which the ballot was cast, of an "active voter"; However, the post containing the ballot shall not count towards the total number of required posts.


Section 13: Repealed Legislation

The following Acts are repealed:
1. Preferential Voting Act
2. None of the Above Act
3. Election Procedures, Certification, and Challenges Act
4  The Amendment to the Election Procedures, Certification, and Challenges Act
5. Omnibus Election System, Procedure and Certification Act
6. Federal Activity Requirements Act

[True Democrat]

Emergency Niger Relief Act

Whereas, the people of Niger are suffereing from extreme poverty, famine, and lack of aid;

The Republic of Atlasia:

1. Approves an emergency budget of $25,000,000 to be given to the United Nations relief fund for direct aid for the people of Niger.

Again, in MUN format. 

I would also like to ask the PPT to move this to the front of the line.  It is really necessary.

[True Democrat]

Reducing Oil Dependency Bill of 2005

Author: Secretary Supersoulty

1) The United States will purchase crude oil extracted from the Athabasca Oil Sands region of Canada at 85% of the market price for the next 7 years.

2) The purchase of this crude oil shall not be limited to less than 50 million barrels per year for the first two years.  In the following years, it shall not be limited to less than 100 million barrels.

3) The United States government shall grant $90 million to the Oil Companies opperating in the Athabasca Oil Sands region.  This money will go towards the building of new facilities and also to partially offset the loss of selling the oil below market value.

4) A renegotiation of terms will take place once the affore mentioned 7 year have passed.

[True Democrat]

Since the New Members Needed Bill failed, I think we should still push for the SoFA to attract new members.  The fact is, we are having the same people elected over and over again (including me!, kind of).  I feel new blood participants are necessary to the survival of Atlasia and its continues prosperity.  This has kept Atlasia going until now.  Besides, let's make the game a little more interesting.

Definition of Forum Affairs Department Powers and New Members Still Needed Bill

The Department of Forum Affairs shall be responsible for:

1. Administering all elections to the Presidency and the Senate;

2. Providing a census for Atlasia as provided by the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia and the Miscellany Act;

3. Keeping a list of all registered voters in Atlasia to be used in the aforementioned census;
 
4. Attracting new members to Atlasia by using his/her powers as he/she sees fit inside the bounds of the constitution and past statutes of the Republic of Atlasia while consulting the President and Senate for any necessary advice or action to be taken in attracting new members.

I believe this bill keeps it pretty open for how the SoFA wants to attract new members, but at the same time faces the issue.  This may go down immediately also, and many senators may be annoyed by me bringing it up again, but I think it's really important.

[True Democrat]

I withdraw that bill.  I really wasn't planning on pursuing it anyway.  I just want to bring light to the issue.

[True Democrat]

Here is a piece of legislation that might be a little controversial:

Reforming Social Security

1. The Thrift Savings Plan is hereby amended to include “Lifecycle Funds”.  Lifecycle funds will be instated under the provisions provided by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board in this report.

2. A program is hereby implemented that explores the idea of extending the benefits and privileges of the Thrift Savings Plan to the general populace.
     a. The said plan shall be first implemented on a trial basis with 500 randomly selected volunteers for each of the G, S, C, F, I, and L funds.
     b. This trial shall last for a duration of 12 months (3 years regular time), with a report being made every 6 months to the Senate by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.
     c. At any time before or after the 12 month deadline of the trial, the Senate of the Republic of Atlasia shall further explore the idea of extending the Thrift Savings Plan to the general public.
     d. If a plan is enacted extending the Thrift Savings Plan to the general populace it must include the following restrictions:
          i. The plan shall replace the Social Security benefits of any participant.
          ii. It shall not be required for any person to invest in the Thrift Savings Plan.
          iii. The plan shall be implemented over a period of twenty years under the guidance of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, with no participant being over the age of 50 at the time the plan is implemented.

If anyone would like to co-sponsor, just tell me.  Also, this has already met Secretary Supersoulty's approval.

[True Democrat]

Ok, another social security bill.

Revenue Act of 2005

Co-sponsor: ColinW

1. All recipients of Social Security benefits who have an individual reported income of above $75,000 or a household income of above $140,000 shall no longer receive social security benefits.

2. If at any point one of the above said recipient's income should suddenly drop below the above said income, they should immediately notify the Social Security Administration.  If the said person's income has actually dropped, then their social security benfits shall resume immediately.

3. Upon the signature of the President, this bill shall take immediate effect.

[True Democrat]

Some new legislation, if a Senator might see fit to introduce it:

Central American Free Trade Agreement Act

1. The Senate hereby approves the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement entered into on August 5, 2004 with the Governments of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
2. The President and other officers of the Atlasian Government shall take such actions, and enforce such regulations, as may be necessary to implement the provisions of the Agreement.
3. This Act shall have effect only with respect to those countries which have ratified or approved the Agreement, and which continue to comply with its provisions.

I officially propose this piece of legislation on behalf of Vice President Emsworth.

I'll be a co-sponsor.

[True Democrat]

I'm not sure if this should be an amendment to another bill, but, here you go:

Declaration of Candidacy Act

1. In order to be considered an official candidate in a federal election,    one must declare their candidacy in the Candidate Declaration Thread which shall be monitored by the Secretary of Forum Affairs.

This already happens, but I think we shoud just make it official.

[True Democrat]

Here's another bill:

SoFA Absence Bill

1. If the SoFA or DSoFA has either not closed the voting booth or has not shown that they are certifying the results within one half hour of the end of voting and have not assigned a replacement to do so, those in the aforementioned situation shall be replaced by the highest office holder who is not a candidate in the federal election in the following list to certify the election results:

1. Vice-President
2. PPT of the Senate
3. Secretary of State
4. Secretary of Defense
5. Secretary of the Treasury
6. District 1 senator
7. District 2 senator
8. District 3 senator
9. District 4 senator
10. District 5 senator
11. Mideast Regional senator
12. Midwest Regional senator
13. Northeast Regional senator
14. Pacific Regional senator
15. Southeast Regional senator

2. For every five minutes after the half hour time limit for the SoFA/DSoFA has elapsed, each said office holder shall have five minutes to show they are certifying the results, before moving onto the next office holder on the list.

Just to clear up the problem we had in the last election.  Some of the language may be confusing though.

[True Democrat]

SoFA Absence Bill

... those in the aforementioned situation shall be replaced by the highest office holder in the following list to certify the election results...

Perhaps this list could be improved by the addition of the phrase "who is not a candidate in the present election"?

Good suggestion, I'll change it.  Thanks. 

[True Democrat]

The arguments after President Siege signed it have been pretty persuasive, so I guess I'll have to introduce this:

Save the Fine Arts Bill

1. The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities Elimination Bill is hereby repealed.

2.  The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities are hereby reinstated immediately upon the signature of the President.

[True Democrat]

All right, I'll agree to 10%.

Y'all do recognize what a 10% cut does right?

Choose your poison:

1. Pay increases are eliminated, resulting in even lower retention rates and more military poverty.
2. Procurement to replace older and/or damaged weapon systems is halted, resulting in a severe drop in ready weapons because of retirements/combat losses.
3. Training is cut down, resulting in less well trained soldiers overseas and more deaths.
4. Research is cut, resulting in other countries developing the weapon systems of the future rather than us.

I can give other examples for some other cuts Daniel has proposed, but at least some of those programs can be reconstituted on the regional level. The military is a federal responsibility though, and one we shouldn't be quick to ignore.

I agree.  I believe the State and Defense should be the last places to cut.

[True Democrat]

I would like to urge the Senate to extend the TSP testing program for another couple years or months.

[True Democrat]

I would like to urge the Senate to extend the TSP testing program for another couple years or months.

Anyone?

[True Democrat]

What is conventional forces defined as?