HOUSE BILL: The HELIOS Act (At Final Vote)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Atlasian Regional Senate
Passed 4-0-2 in the Atlasian Senate assembled
Be it resolved, X Senator PiT, PPT

Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Pending
[/quote]

Sponsor: I need a sponsor
House Designation: HB 1131 (Senate Originated Bill)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Because if there is one sure way to deal with any form of  inflation" it is to back it with the full faith and credit of the Atlasian Republic, up to unlimited amounts. All of which is deficit funded I would add, if that wasn't clear enough already.


This is going to need substantial alterations before I can ever vote for it. As presently constructed, it appears to me to throw gasoline on the fire and then impose the burden for such on the public credit.

We cannot continue this insane policy of sending everyone to college, to get worthless degrees. This is what caused the rampant inflation in tuition in the first place, and simply throwing the cost to the tax payers fails to address the root problems. Not only that, but this bill mandates that regions maintain and increase the cost of higher education, with Section 3.a.

I understand fully the motivation to eliminate financial poverty as a hindrance to education, I agree with that goal but this is exactly the wrong approach. The end result of this will be the nationalization of all higher education once the weight of expense cripples the federal budget, and once such control is obtained, the end result will be slash and burn to get costs down.   

[JGibson]

I'm going to take up the sponsorship reins.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Representatives have 48 hours to object.


I hope you got some revenue amendments as your first order of business.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Without objection, JGibson is now sponsor.

[fhtagn]

Because if there is one sure way to deal with any form of  inflation" it is to back it with the full faith and credit of the Atlasian Republic, up to unlimited amounts. All of which is deficit funded I would add, if that wasn't clear enough already.


This is going to need substantial alterations before I can ever vote for it. As presently constructed, it appears to me to throw gasoline on the fire and then impose the burden for such on the public credit.

We cannot continue this insane policy of sending everyone to college, to get worthless degrees. This is what caused the rampant inflation in tuition in the first place, and simply throwing the cost to the tax payers fails to address the root problems. Not only that, but this bill mandates that regions maintain and increase the cost of higher education, with Section 3.a.

I understand fully the motivation to eliminate financial poverty as a hindrance to education, I agree with that goal but this is exactly the wrong approach. The end result of this will be the nationalization of all higher education once the weight of expense cripples the federal budget, and once such control is obtained, the end result will be slash and burn to get costs down.   

I'm inclined to agree with this argument. While I fully agree and appreciate the effort to make college affordable, I believe these are very valid concerns that need to be addressed and resolved in order for me to support it as well.

[JGibson]

Anyone else have any amendments to this bill?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

As much as I am giddy about us finally having some amendments in the House (Senate already has had seven amendments offered), I am dubious about attempting to amend this, but here goes something

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Okay this limits it significantly to just Community College students. I don't have time to tackle Section 3 though, right now.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Sponsor Feedback: Pending
Status: Waiting for Feedback, Vote to start in 24 hours if feedback is hostile or not forthcoming.

[JGibson]

Your Honorable Speaker, this amendment pares down the College For All Act to just community colleges. The elimination of tuition for working and middle-class students is an excellent idea.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Your Honorable Speaker, this amendment pares down the College For All Act to just community colleges. The elimination of tuition for working and middle-class students is an excellent idea.

I will treat this as friendly, Representatives have 24 hours to object to the amendment.


I must note also this will require further amending, including reworking the bottom section, which i did not have time to do when I submitted the amendment. I also want to change the way that the bill has the federal government interact with the regions, and also with the expense related situation.

Finally, we have to consider this relative to the pell grants, since a good bit of Community College is already free a significant portion of this community. So we can either shift those freed up funds over, or we can find new funding, and thus focus the saved money's on expanding the Pell Grants as a way to assist with the 4 year level.

[JGibson]

Your Honorable Speaker, I agree with some of the freed-up funding being shifted over to expand Pell Grants.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Your Honorable Speaker, I agree with some of the freed-up funding being shifted over to expand Pell Grants.

Well technically in that case the money is not being "transferred".


Right now this bill is completely unfunded.


Post amendment though, we have a system targeted at Community College. That means pell grants will no longer be used for community college. Technially the money is being freed up within the Pell Grant system to then expand its availability for say 4 year level and those seeking a 4 year degree after completing 2 years of college.

However, the bill itself is still unfunded and thus unless we can fix that, the above is all just academic.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

As of now I don't think I would be able to sign this bill (as is), however I believe that a fair compromise would be to fund students below a certain level of income, this may be something we can address in the incoming budget.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Amendment H7:01 has been adopted.


I must echo the President's sentiments.


This must be funded in some means to have a chance at being viable.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This has been sitting for quite a while.

[JGibson]

Now that a lot of backlog in the bills has been swamp-drained, it is time to make some headway to work on the details of this bill before its passage.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I do think we will be moving onto the budget rather soon so either that will help this arrive at some conclusion or stand in the way, in which case my preference would be to get rid of it rather than further delay the budget. In the budget itself we could boost funding for assistance if it came down to it.

That being said I do think there is a path forward here.

[JGibson]

Your Honorable Speaker, it appears that we may finally be on the right track to get this bill finessed and passed.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Well we were, but now it seems that the plans for a budget are kind of in limbo as a result of "certain personnel changes" at the White House.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Yes, there really needs to be some sort of funding mechanism in place before I can even consider supporting this bill. Beyond that, it seems to me that establishing some sort of tuition cap would be highly advisable, in order to limit the cost to the federal and regional governments.

[RFayette]

I cannot support this until alterations to make it deficit-neutral are made.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Atlasian Regional Senate
Passed 4-0-2 in the Atlasian Senate assembled
Be it resolved, X Senator PiT, PPT

Atlasian People's House of Representatives
Pending
[/quote]

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Is that an amendment?

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

College for all is a truly noble goal.