2005 Puerto Rican Statehood Bill

[Gabu]

As introduced by Sen. MasterJedi:

2005 Puerto Rican Statehood Bill

I.   The commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are hereby the 51st state of the union of the Atlasia with the name of Puerto Rico.
II.   The Senate shall vote on which region/district Puerto Rico shall be designated into.
III.   The State of Puerto Rico shall be given full rights from whichever district/region it’s placed into and be under full jurisdiction of the Atlasian constitution.

I hereby open debate on this bill.

[Gabu]

Personally, I support this bill, although I agree with Colin Wixted's idea.  I also think it might be a good idea to say that this will only come into force after those from Puerto Rico approve of it, although simulating that when we have no one from Puerto Rico might be kind of hard.

[Gabu]

As nobody really seems to support the Virgin Islands being included, I introduce this amendment:

Section I is hereby stricken and replaced with the following:

I.   The commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby the 51st state of the union of Atlasia under the name of Puerto Rico.

[Gabu]

Is there any way we can add Puerto Rico to Dave's map generator?  Just so that we can still make accurate maps and stuff.  If not, I have my own custom maps that people can use if they want.

Actually, yes, there is.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a secret or not, but in the URL of the image produced by the EV Calculator, if you change the date to "2008" and then add a bit at the end that says "&PR=x;y;z" where x, y, and z are the winning party, the number of EVs, and the winning percentage, respectively, Puerto Rico is displayed on the map.

[Gabu]

As for practical realities, a good argument could be made that the Senate does not have the power to do this sort of thing under this Constitution and this bill could well face court challenge.

What would be the relevant sections of the Constitution to make that challenge?

[Gabu]

As for practical realities, a good argument could be made that the Senate does not have the power to do this sort of thing under this Constitution and this bill could well face court challenge.

What would be the relevant sections of the Constitution to make that challenge?

I'm sorry, I misread the Constitution.  It does have the power to do this in the Powers of the Senate.  Apologies. 

Ah, okay.  I thought that was the case, but I figured I'd just make sure I wasn't missing something.

[Gabu]

As there appears to be no debate on my amendment, I hereby call a vote:

Section I is hereby stricken and replaced with the following:

I.   The commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby the 51st state of the union of Atlasia under the name of Puerto Rico.

All senators in favor, vote "aye"; all against, vote "nay".

---

Aye.

[Gabu]

Aye.

I also propose this filibuster amendment to beat MAS:

Every accurance of the letter "a" shall be changed to "å."

I support this amendment, as "accurance" is not a word, and thus this amendment will be completely ineffectual.

[Gabu]

I'm sorry to interfere, but wouldn't it be simpler if, instead of holding a separate vote on the matter, the region designation is determined by bill itself?

As this comment appears to have been completely ignored, I'll address it.

The main reason why I personally like it in its current form is because the question of "Should Puerto Rico become a state?" is entirely different than the question of "What region should Puerto Rico be located in?"  If this bill both declared that Puerto Rico is made into a state and declared what region it would reside in, there would be a much higher chance of it failing purely because senators didn't like the region it was being put in, not because they didn't like the idea of Puerto Rico being a state.

When the two votes are separated, it allows us to first settle the issue of whether or not Puerto Rico should be a state at all, and then we can settle the issue of where it should go, without the fear that a location suggestion could torpedo its entire admission into the Union.

[Gabu]

With nine votes in favor to none against (I'm assuming that Colin's vote was for the first one), the first amendment has passed.

As for this one:

Every accurance of the letter "a" shall be changed to "å."

...I'm going to ignore it per the Senate Procedural Resolution on Multiple Issue Bills.

And as for MAS':

Clause I is hereby stricken and replaced with:

I. After a majority vote of the citizens of Puerto Rico voting in the affirmative for statehood in a referendum administered by the territorial government of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby entered in the Union of Atlasia as the 51st state under the name of Puerto Rico.

I hereby open voting on this amendment.

All senators in favor, vote "aye"; all against, vote "nay".

[Gabu]

Aye.

[Gabu]

With six votes in favor to none against, this amendment has passed.

[Gabu]

Well I am very leery about this bill. I do not want to force statehood upon those who do not want it. If the Puerto Ricans, in other words the GM, finds themselves in favour of this resolution then I see no reason to vote against it but if the opinions of the Puerto Ricans are not taken into account, again this is GM territory, then I am against this bill.

MAS' amendment that just passed requires a majority of Puerto Ricans to be in favor of statehood for this to come into effect.

[Gabu]

Well I am very leery about this bill. I do not want to force statehood upon those who do not want it. If the Puerto Ricans, in other words the GM, finds themselves in favour of this resolution then I see no reason to vote against it but if the opinions of the Puerto Ricans are not taken into account, again this is GM territory, then I am against this bill.

MAS' amendment that just passed requires a majority of Puerto Ricans to be in favor of statehood for this to come into effect.

I'm guessing that would have to be simulated by the GM for that to take affect then?

I'm not really sure how that work work, actually.  Given that no actual Puerto Rican vote for statehood is coming up, it seems to me that having the GM do it would be akin to having the GM just make stuff up.  However, I don't know of any other way of doing it, so I don't know.

[Gabu]

Okay we have three people that want a vote (including me), can we get a vote Gabu or do we have to wait still?

I was mainly waiting to see if Colin Wixted had anything more to say, but it appears he doesn't, so okay, I'll call a vote on this bill.

The bill's final form is as follows:

2005 Puerto Rican Statehood Bill

I. After a majority vote of the citizens of Puerto Rico voting in the affirmative for statehood in a referendum administered by the territorial government of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is hereby entered in the Union of Atlasia as the 51st state under the name of Puerto Rico.
II.   The Senate shall vote on which region/district Puerto Rico shall be designated into.
III.   The State of Puerto Rico shall be given full rights from whichever district/region it’s placed into and be under full jurisdiction of the Atlasian constitution.

All senators in favor, vote "aye"; all against, vote "nay".

[Gabu]

Aye.

[Gabu]

This bill now has enough votes to pass; senators now have 24 hours to change their vote.

[Gabu]

So let me see if I have this correctly, if nobody changes their mind on this we have to wait to see how Ford has it play out. And if the Puerto Rican's choose statehood then we start debate on the region to put it in?

Yes, that's correct.

[Gabu]

I say we wait until another referedum from the actual Puerto Rican government rather then leave it to the GM.

That could take years and it wouldn't happen for at least another couple of years. If we waited Atlasia might not be here anymore or we could be waiting forever!

Oh, no, you don't.

[Gabu]

With seven votes in favor to one against, this bill has passed.

I hereby present it to the president for his signature.

[Gabu]

Alcon San Croix

I would like to put down my foot here: I'd rather not see areas being admitted we have no avatars for. Puerto Rico is enough, at least for now. Let's give some time for settling.

Areas we have no avatars for?  I'm pretty sure this is a Puerto Rican avatar:

[Gabu]

Alcon San Croix

I would like to put down my foot here: I'd rather not see areas being admitted we have no avatars for. Puerto Rico is enough, at least for now. Let's give some time for settling.

Areas we have no avatars for?  I'm pretty sure this is a Puerto Rican avatar:

Which is why I signed this.

Oh, I thought you were saying "this is the only area without an avatar that I will allow."

[Gabu]

Can the Senate get started on the next bill please? 

Since the Official Senate Procedural Resolution is now in effect, I need to wait 24 hours after a bill passes or fails before bringing a new one to the floor.

[Gabu]

If you want to, you could start a motion to override the specific clause making you wait 24 hours and with a majority vote, you could introduce something faster. 

Getting six votes on that would probably take around 24 hours anyway, so I figure I might as well not expend the effort.