HB 2016-1045: Mixed-Member Proportional Act of 2016 (TABLED)

[NeverAgain]

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Sponsor: Fmr. Rep. Abraham Washington [UA-NY]

I open this up for 48-hour debate.

[LLR]

Ugh, definitely not. Just stupid. We don't even have 250 players.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

I can't support this bill for the simple reason that it creates more seats in the Federal government then people in Atlasia, secondly in order to amend the number of seats you need to amend the Constitution of Atlasia. So this bill if passed would be un-constiutional. So therefore because of the problems with this bill I motion to table this bill.  

[NeverAgain]

I mean, I kind of have to introduce this, because like - NICE GUY FF .

But this is so stupid. Please withdraw this.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

I can't support this bill either. As LLR stated, we only have 148 registered voters, as opposed to the 300 (250H, 50S) that this bill calls for, and as AZ stated, you would theoretically be required to amend the Constitution, which this doesn't.

[Enduro]

Huh?

[Leinad]

I mean, I kind of have to introduce this, because like - NICE GUY FF .

Well he's actually not a Representative so you didn't, right?

[NeverAgain]

I mean, I kind of have to introduce this, because like - NICE GUY FF .

Well he's actually not a Representative so you didn't, right?

I was making a joke, but you are correct, I didn't have to. I did so as it was in my queue and we do have a responsibility to introduce citizen legislation if requested. This is obviously a silly piece of legislation, but I was trying to do my job and provide due diligence to the right to make citizen's ideas heard, even by those who have been expelled and lost their right to represent serve.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

[Anna Komnene]

In addition to what everyone already said, this would force me and all the other indies to join a party, so no. 

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It would be reasonable to explore alternatives to how the House is elected and perhaps Party List is something to look at some point. Though the concerns expressed by Siren on this regard are critical to consider as well, because they don't work very well where indies are concerned and right now the present system is rather advantageous to indies because it isn't hard for someone to pull votes to get elected from all over the country, whereras be it district or party list indies would have a harder time winning.

However, I would have to oppose vehemently, as I have for years, any disruption in the equilibrium between regional and popular interests in the Congress. Under the unicameral system the Senate was split 5-5 between Regional and At-Large. Under bicameralism, each chamber represents one of those interests and both are required to pass legislation. And all At-Large system would sharply impact the balance of power in the federal system in a way that is detrimental to the regions.

[Classic Conservative]

I motion to table.

[Enduro]

I motion to table.

Seconded.

[Clyde1998]

Reading the bill, there appears to be a misunderstanding. The bill seems to suggest changes to the American Congress (which was succeeded by the Atlasian Congress).

I think MMP would bring an interesting change to our electoral system, but it would create a situation where certain people would be almost certain to be elected, if they were first on the party list.

In regards to independent candidates, in Scotland, there was an independent [Margo McDonald] elected under the proportional section of the election - this works out by having independents effectively as a party of one. Where if the independent reaches the threshold to win two seats, then the second seat won is allocated to the next party.

Realistically, the proportional section of MMP, would really be a census of active voters - where everyone would vote for their own party, where possible, forcing an independent out.

I would be open to be commissioned to do a report on various electoral methods for Congress to see if there is anything preferable to what we currently use.

At this stage though, I would strongly recommend that the House rejects the bill.

[NeverAgain]

I am going to table this (I forget if I can under Robert's Rules), but it's been way past 48 hours and it's obvious this is so dumb. Especially because its author is now just in Atlasia to troll.

This bill has been tabled.