Legislative Review Commission

[Хahar 🤔]

Let's, you know, make one to examine old laws.

Any laws meeting the following requirements have been implicitly revoked:

• Granting tax credits associated with the production of ethanol, except to the extent that the tax credit is for the production of ethanol derived from Desirable Organic Sources as defined below... [more]

[Хahar 🤔]

We shall start with the work of the first three Senates. All laws passed during that time period not listed below are inoperative and should be stricken from the record. Note that F.L. 2-5: Region Redrawing Act is no longer operative, since the regional map has changed since its enactment, and that although the Wiki states that F.L. 3-6: Family Planning Amendments Act of 2004 is operative, it is not in fact so, as F.L. 22-5: Act to Establish Atlasian Policy Towards HIV/AIDS repealed the act repealing it (F.L. 7-2: Repeal of Family Planning Amendments of 2004), it did not specifically re-enact it, as required by F.L. 8-11: Second Miscellany Act.

F.L. 1-3: Anti Drug Testing Act

This legislation was struck down by Fritz v. Ernest, but it may have been again made operative by F.L. 8-11: Second Miscellany Act, which entirely replaced its text. The simplest solution would be to repeal F.L. 1-3 and Section 3 of F.L. 8-11 and re-enact the law contained in Section 3 of F.L. 8-11.

F.L. 2-4: Death Penalty Abolition Act

This only applies to the central government, and it ought to be explicitly defined as such.

F.L. 2-6: Health Care Reform Act of 2004

This ought to recieve a serious review by people more qualified than I to look at it. At the very least, its title should be changed to remove the "of 2004" and bring it in line with other titles.

F.L. 3-3: National Energy Act

Clauses 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 were repealed, and an amendment added, by F.L. 27-8: Actual Amendment to the National Energy Act. The text of the legislation should be amended to reflect that. In addition, it will be necessary when reviewing future legislation to check for implicit revocation on the grounds of F.L. 27-8. Also, the original legislation contained certain typographical and terminological errors, which should be fixed.

F.L. 3-4: Atlasia National Holiday Act

The tone leaves something to be desired, and this legislation could probably be combined into omnibus holiday legislation, or abandoned altogether.

F.L. 3-5: Missile Defense Initiative Act

Strange law. Ought to be eliminated, or at least clarified.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Passing an omnibus holiday bill would be a good idea. I know that I got a bill passed that made V-E Day & V-J Day national holidays.

[Хahar 🤔]

Here is a draft of a bill reorganizing the laws enacted by the first three Senates. Hopefully, future drafts will cover more and more of the Statute, until every law is dealt with.
Statutory Reorganization Bill

Section 1

All laws passed by the first three Senates are hereby repealed.

Section 2

Whenever an Act which repealed a former Act is repealed, said former Act shall not thereby be revived, unless expressly so provided.

Section 3

Federal funding shall be denied to any school which compels students to submit to drug testing without probable cause.

Section 4

Given that the death penalty presents a fundamental violation of human rights, the death penalty shall not be a punishment for violation of any Atlasian law.

Section 5

1. Upon the passage of this bill, all citizens of the United States will have the right to purchase insurance coverage from an out of state provider.
2. Every citizen may open a Health Savings Account.  Citizens may deposit a maximum of $5000 dollars per year tax free into the Health Savings Account.  Health Savings Accounts may be spent on medical insurance premiums as well as direct payments to doctors.
3. Punitive damages awarded in civil courts may not exceed $250,000.  In class action lawsuits, punitive damages may not exceed $150,000 per plaintiff.

Section 6

1. The responsibility for the approval of oil refinery construction belongs to the Department of Internal Affairs.
2. Sport Utility Vehicles are classified as sedans for the purpose of CAFE standards.
3. CAFE standards shall increase fuel efficiency by 3% every seven years after 2006.
4. $1 billion per year shall be allotted for research on hydrogen fuel cells.
5. Any provision of law granting tax credits associated with the production of ethanol is also hereby repealed, except to the extent that the tax credit is for the production of ethanol derived from Desirable Organic Sources as defined below. In addition, no federal monies shall be spent on any subsidies for the production of ethanol except to the extent manufactured from Desirable Organic Sources. 50% of the increased revenues received by the federal government pursuant to the  repeal of the ethanol tax credit shall be spent on research and development of economically practical means of producing ethanol from lawn cuttings, corn stalks and other such organic materials the use of which will both i) not increase the demand for items consumed by humans as food such as corn or sugar, and (ii) effect a material reduction in the use of fossil fuels (referred to herein as "Desirable Organic Sources").

Section 7

April 23 and October 23 are national holidays known as Constitution Day and Dave Day, respectively.

Section 8

$1,000,000,000 per year shall be allotted for the Department of External Affairs to develop a missile defense system.
Notes:

• F.L. 8-11 should be repealed when the time comes, as all of its provisions will have been incorporated into this legislation.
• Sections 5, 7, and 8 ought to be given special review.
• All holiday legislation ought to be folded into Section 7.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Xahar you're amazing. This is a great idea and you're doing great work.

[Хahar 🤔]

And now the next three Senates. Normal disclaimers apply. F.L. 5-5: Modifications to the Family Planning Amendments Act is subject to the same issue as F.L. 3-6.

F.L. 4-2:  The Federal Unionization and Competitive Contracting Act

Weird name, which ought to be fixed.

F.L. 4-3:  Applicability of Common Law Act

I'm not sure what to make of this one. It's worded strangely and makes references to a "United Forum" (terminology was inconsistent in Atlasia's early days, but I've never seen that one before).

F.L. 4-4:  The Miscellany Act

This one has the same naming problem as F.L. 4-2. Sections 1 and 3 have been repealed, and Section 2 has become obsolete with the end of districts. Section 4 can be replaced by a general proclamation that the short form is to be used by government.

F.L. 4-7:  Clean Energy Act

The legislation leaves something to be desired. I would appreciate review by those with more knowledge in the subject than I.

F.L. 4-8:  Intracoastal and Other Waterways Act

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books.

F.L. 4-9:  Welfare Reform Act

The Wiki informs us that this legislation was superseded by F.L. 12-12: Modified Welfare Reform Act, but I see no evidence that it was ever repealed. Now would be a good time to repeal it.

F.L. 5-1:  Pacific Defense and Taiwanese Protection Act

This legislation is highly irresponsible and should be stricken at once.

F.L. 5-2:  Military Division Appropriation Act

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books.

F.L. 5-4:  Magnetic Levitation Research Act

The Preamble ought to become a Clause 1.

F.L. 5-6: Asset Forfeiture Reform Act

Clause 4 is now obsolete.

F.L. 5-8: Second Military Division Appropriation Act

The Fifth Senate loved war, didn't it? This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books.

F.L. 5-10: John F. Kennedy Memorial Act

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books.

F.L. 6-2: DDT Re-Introduction Act

No comment.

F.L. 6-3: Water Technology Act

Presumably this now ought to read "$5 billion shall be appropriated over the next five years to fund the perfection of desalination technology." At any rate, it's incredibly vague, and ought to be reviewed.

F.L. 6-4: Anti-Opebo Act

The Preamble ought to become a Clause 1. Also, bad title.

F.L. 6-6: Community Revitalization Act

Given that this legislation was struck down in Bono v. Atlasia II, it ought to be taken off the books.

F.L. 6-7: Promotion of Democracy Act

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books.

F.L. 6-8: Fair Wage Act

Given that this legislation was struck down in Bono v. Atlasia II, it ought to be taken off the books.

F.L. 6-10: Atomic Energy Community Termination Act of 2005

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books. It may safely be repealed because F.L. 8-11: Second Miscellany Act allows legislation repealing other legislation to be repealed without the original legislation being re-enacted.

F.L. 6-11: Jury Selection Act

This legislation was amended by Atlasia v. Keystone Phil. The law ought to reflect that.

F.L. 6-12: Government Thread Act

I doubt that this legislation has ever been enforced. It's too bad I hadn't seen it earlier, as I'd have used it to make mischief. It should be repealed now.

F.L. 6-13: Industrial Hemp Legalization Act

This was a one-time thing, and there's no reason for it to be kept on the books. It may safely be repealed because F.L. 8-11: Second Miscellany Act allows legislation repealing other legislation to be repealed without the original legislation being re-enacted.

F.L. 6-16: Atlasian Currency Act

Is this really what we have on our money? Bleargh. Section 2 has expired and may be repealed.

F.L. 6-17: Preserving Our National Parks Act

This legislation has expired completely and may be repealed.

F.L. 6-18: Affirmative Action Criteria Specification Act

No comment.

F.L. 6-19: Marijuana Legalization and Taxation Act

This legislation was amended by F.L. 31-12: Amendment to the Marijuana Legalization and Taxation Act.

F.L. 6-20: Repeal of the Education and Care for Children in Poverty Act

The Wiki says that this legislation was repealed by F.L. 22-2: Repeal of the Repeal of the Education and Care for Children in Poverty Act, but I see no legislation to that effect. Now would be a good time to repeal it.

F.L. 6-21: ANWR Drilling Authorization Act

Yeah, we might want to repeal this one.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I'm not sure that repealing the ANWR Drilling Authorization Act now is such a good idea. If we politicize this project, we run the risk of derailing it entirely. How about we stick to resolving technical issues with the statute & talk about repealing that one seperately?

[Хahar 🤔]

     I'm not sure that repealing the ANWR Drilling Authorization Act now is such a good idea. If we politicize this project, we run the risk of derailing it entirely. How about we stick to resolving technical issues with the statute & talk about repealing that one seperately?

Yeah, I know. It's just a side comment.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Xahar asked me to assist, and I gladly will:

F.L. 7-1: Nuclear Restriction Act

This law is sensible, but we have several laws concerning nuclear weapons and energy on the books throughout the entire statute, so they could be all consolidated into one easily. Also, this law makes several references to the "Secretary of State" which of course, was abolished long ago. Terribly out of date.

F.L. 7-3: New Mexico-Montana Regional Act

There's no reason for this to be kept on the books. This was a one-time thing and enforces absolutely nothing. Should be taken off the record.

F.L. 7-6: Puerto Rican Statehood Act

Again, a one time thing that is incredibly dated. It actively enforces nothing.

F.L. 7-8: Prescription Drug Reimportation Act

This law is mostly sensible but there are a few things that should be fixed with it. For one, the law mentioned "Medicare and Medicaid" which were abolished in the Atlasian National Health Act (F.L. 32-12), and the law itself was later amended by F.L. 14-1, so the law itself could use some simplifying.

There's also the fact that it references the Food & Drug Administration, and I'm iffy on whether or not this actually exists, since that sort of thing has been inconsistent over the years. (Carrying over federal agencies from the U.S. that is.)


Before I get into moving onto the 8th Senate, there's a major issues that cross the entire history of the statute that I need to point out:

What the hell are our farm subsidy laws?

In the 7th Senate, there was this: F.L. 7-4: Farm Subsidy Limit Act

This limited farm subsidies and capped the amount of subsidies at 15 billion. (It also, by the way, referenced the Department of the Treasury. Dated reference for sure.)

But then we had this in the 9th Senate: F.L. 9-13: Farm Subsidies Abolition Bill which slashed the amount of subsidies from 16.5 billion, which they never should have been in the first place, abolished all subsidies to sugar, a bunch of other random mumbo jumbo, and reduced the total amount of subsidies to 6 billion.

There's also F.L. 17-7: Federal Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act from the 17th Senate, which reduced the amount of insurance coverage for federal crop insurance.

The next thing I spied was something semi-recent: F.L. 31-9: Atlasian Agriculture Reinvestment Act. This reduced all farm subsidies by 10% (from what?? six billion in total or individual subsidies?) and limited, again, who could get a subsidy.

We are in bad need of taking all farm subsidies legislation, trashing them, and writing a comprehensive farm subsidy bill encompassing, if we still want to, things from all these bills.

Next Senates coming up shortly.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'd also say before I look at the others that we should completely change the way we wiki laws.

Instead of wikiing laws by each individual Senate, let's just date them by month (we can still use F.L. "insert senate and legislation number here" for numbering purposes), which would IMO make it a bit easier to read, and whenever a law is repealed, take it off the page completely and move it to a Repealed Legislation archive, to avoid all confusion. There's no reason why repealed laws need to be on the same page as active laws.

[Marokai Backbeat]

F.L. 8-1: Atlasian Wetlands Act

There's nothing really wrong with this legislation, it's just the fact that the link used to define what a 'wetland' is has now died, and we shouldn't be using links in legislation like that anyway.

F.L. 8-2: Amendment to the Government Thread Act

Amendment to a law that, as Xahar stated earlier, is nonsense and is never enforced anyway. Should be repealed along with the original law and stricken from the record since it's been totally useless.

F.L. 8-3: Diplomatic Mission Act

References the Secretary of State, which doesn't exist anymore. There's nothing else wrong with the law itself other than that, though.

F.L. 8-4: Voting System Reform Act

Despite a name that makes it seem like this law actually DOES anything, this is actually just something passed to create a commission.

This is five years old.

Obviously it should be stricken from the record, as it active enforces nothing and was a one-time thing.

F.L. 8-10: Emergency Niger Relief Act

This was a one time distribution of relief aid to Niger. There's no reason to keep this on the books.

F.L. 8-11: Second Miscellany Act

A nice effort at legislative cleanup but this could easily be scrapped and folded into a larger effort.

F.L. 8-12: Foreign Relations Review Act

This entire damn thing is obsolete.

F.L. 8-13: Military Enlargement Act

This law was supposed to be in effect for four years after passage. That ended mid-2009. This has no reason to be on the books whatsoever.


Through the 7th and 8th Senates, five laws have been marked on the wiki as "repealed." These should be taken off the record as well and placed in some sort of "repealed laws archive" to cleanup the statute page.

[Marokai Backbeat]

F.L. 9-1: Hurricane Katrina Relief Act

You all know the drill by now. This was a one-time effort and the fuel tax suspension is well out of date by now. No need to have this on the record.

F.L. 9-2: Protection of the Right to Bear Arms Act

Section 3 (the largest part) was completely removed from this bill because of F.L. 12-2. Both should probably be repealed and combined to accommodate for the changes.

F.L. 9-4: Reforming Social Security Act

Most of this bill was about a trial for reforming Social Security that lasted 3 months, which of course well expired. Clause D of Section 2 was repealed by F.L. 12-13, which is another trial that lasts for 10 years. (Rather long for a 'trial.)

There were 'reports' specified as necessary in F.L. 12-13, but nothing has ever really come of this, and the only other thing on the statute that has "Social Security" in the title of the law is way down into the 31st Senate. It would probably be better to scrap both laws entirely, as they've served no tangible purpose, and at the very least, F.L. 9-4 is pretty much useless being kept on the record.

F.L. 9-5: Regional Quarters Act

Personally I find this to be dumb. All right; Section 4 of this law was repealed by F.L. 12-3, an extension of the Regional Quarters Act, which also apparently went nowhere, as the time limits on both laws have long since passed.

Also, both laws reference the Treasury Secretary and the Treasury Department itself, both of which are, again, long since abolished. Both 9-5 and 12-3 should just be scrapped and removed from the record.

F.L. 9-6: Treasury Policy Review Act

Pointless for obvious reasons. The Department of the Treasury was abolished a LONG time ago, and this entire thing is completely obsolete and should be removed from the record.

F.L. 9-8: Atlasian Symbols Act

Two things about this law:

One, the Secretary of Forum Affairs doesn't really exist anymore.

Secondly, this was a law about citizens submitting their entries for Atlasian national symbols, and then the SoFA was to hold a vote on them to choose a winner for each category. This has obviously passed (and if anything ever came of it, I don't know), so having this on the record is useless and a waste of space.

F.L. 9-11: Hate Crime Laws Abolition Bill

I only wrote this down here because it's insane and should absolutely be reviewed by the Senate. Pardon me for the personal commentary here.

F.L. 9-12: Gulf Coast Hurricane Damage Prevention Act

Since this is only one very short sentence, this could easily be consolidated into something else, if it's even necessary to have it on the record at all.

F.L. 9-13: Farm Subsidies Abolition Bill

Mentioned the problems with this in my previous posts.

F.L. 9-14: Asbestos Ban Bill

This is a classic example of why our statute needs to be cleaned up. This Act was later repealed by the Asbestos Ban Amendment Act (F.L. 12-5) and references the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State.

That law was then repealed by the semi-recent Repeal of the Aesbestos Amendment Act (F.L. 31-3) which reinstated 9-14 and added more clauses to it by amending it. Good Lord. All of this should be scrapped, stricken from record, and then rewritten from the start.

[Marokai Backbeat]

FYI:

I know that in the Cabinet Restructuring Act (F.L. 15-4) the responsibilies in law for the positions of Treasury Secretary, Defense Secretary, and the Secretary of State were all vested into other positions.

But this still causes a great deal of confusion and lost responsibilities that have simply gone ignored from old statute. Anything including references to those positions and Departments should be rewritten in any sort of cleanup effort for clarity to new posters.

[Marokai Backbeat]

F.L. 10-1: Government Employees Pay Cut Act

Cutting the pay for government employees is a lofty goal, but blanket cuts for Senate and Executive Branch pay are iffy unless you specify what everyone makes. Perhaps a good effort to cleanup this law in a consolidation effort could be to simply specify what Senators and members of the Executive Branch make with an actual number, as opposed to a simplistic reduction in pay that we don't know the value of.

F.L. 10-3: Species Act of 2005

Made completely obsolete by F.L. 11-3. There's no reason to have this on record.

F.L. 10-4: Foreign Aid Reduction Act

Also made obsolete, but this time by F.L. 27-11. Essentially, after both of these laws, not a damn thing really changed. Both should be thrown out.


Misc.;

In the 9th Senate, one law, F.L. 9-7, is marked as repealed. Since it was a simple repeal, F.L. 18-2, both laws should be thrown off the record.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I've been staring at the Wiki for these posts for two and ahalf hours, so I'm getting a bit bored of this and have a touch of eye strain, , but as my last post looking up a ton of laws for the night, there is a long list of these that should probably be consolidated somehow, because they just take up a ton of space unnecessarily:

F.L. 9-10: Central American Free Trade Act
F.L. 13-2: North American Free Trade Act
F.L. 13-6: South American Free Trade Act Amended by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 13-7: Caribbean Free Trade Act Amended by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 13-9: Atlasia-Australia Free Trade Act
F.L. 13-10: Atlasia-Singapore Free Trade Act Repealed by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 13-11: Atlasia-Morocco Free Trade Act Repealed by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 13-12: Atlasia-Bahrain Free Trade Act Repealed by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 13-13: Atlasia-Israel Free Trade Act
F.L. 13-16: Atlasian-New Zealand Free Trade Act
F.L. 13-19: Atlasia-Thailand Free Trade Act Amended by: F.L. 28-6
F.L. 14-5: Atlasia-Jordan Free Trade Act
F.L. 14-7: Atlasia-Switzerland Free Trade Act
F.L. 14-8: Atlasia-South Africa Free Trade Act
F.L. 15-8: Atlasian-Philippines Free Trade Act
F.L. 17-1: Atlasian-Kuwait Free Trade Act Repealed by F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 31-15: Atlasia-Iraq Free Trade Act
F.L. 31-24: Atlasia-Japan Free Trade Act
F.L. 31-27: Atlasia-South Korea Free Trade Act
F.L. 32-11: Atlasia-EU Free Trade Act
F.L. 32-12: Atlasia-Turkey Free Trade Act
F.L. 32-13: Atlasia-Norway-Iceland Free Trade Act


General Free Trade Related Legislation:

F.L. 31-26: LGBT Trade Act
F.L. 32-4: Amendment to the LGBT Trade Act*
F.L. 32-15: Free Trade Agreement Act

*This bill is enforced at the discretion of the SoEA. HappyWarrior instituted the policy initially and it has yet to be reversed by an SoEA thereafter, and remains in effect.


These were repealed by specific Acts targeted at them directly:

F.L. 13-20: Atlasia-Oman Free Trade Act Repealed by: F.L. 28-13: Free Trade Regulation Act
F.L. 14-4: Atlasia-Malaysia Free Trade Act Repealed by: F.L. 29-2: Malaysian Free Trade Renegotiation Act


In short, we have alot of trade stuff on the books strewn out in individual little bills. We could consolidate a TON of legislation by combining all these things in an omnibus trade bill of some sort.

[Purple State]

Wow, good job ya'll. This project seems to be rolling along really nicely and would provide an appropriate alternative to a legislative reboot.