Mideast Assembly Thread

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I'd suggest Cleveland, Detroit, or Baltimore.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Considering all of his experience and dedication to this body, I would strongly encourage the Assembly to elect Inks as Speaker for another session.

Even though Inks and I are probably the farthest ideological extremes in the assembly, I do appreciate and respect his experience and dedication to the Mideast and our legislature. I wholeheartedly support him to be our Speaker for the next session!

Seconded

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Immigration Reform Act of 2012

Section 1
•   The Mideast Assembly recognizes that although English is the primary language of the region, there is no official language in the Mideast. 
•   The Mideast government will build English language education and career-services centers in the cities of Baltimore, Chicago (2x), Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Milwaukee, Nyman DC (2x), Richmond, and St. Louis. These centers will focus on helping first generation immigrants learn English and find jobs so that they can be productive members of Atlasian society.
•   Any first-generation immigrant who passes a region-issued English language exam at one of these centers will receive a $1,000 earned income tax-credit for the first two years after they pass the exam.

Section 2
•   The Mideast will establish a ten-year guest-worker program through which immigrant workers will be issued special visas that will allow them (along with their nuclear family) to reside in the U.S. as guest workers for a period not to exceed ten years. 
•   During this time, all guest workers and their family are encouraged to work to gain citizenship during this ten-year window

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Mr. Assemblyman, what would "encouraged to work to gain citizenship" specifically entail in the context of this bill? Periodic government reminders to the families in question?

Some clarification here would be helpful.

In the context of this bill, it is more symbolic.  The intent of that part of section two was essentially to reflect a welcoming attitude towards immigrants by the regional government (as opposed to one of hostility).  It is not unlike the first part of section one, in this way.  Although the Assembly could simply not pass any "official language declarations," explicitly stating that the region does not have an official language has symbolic significance.  From a policy perspective, the real meat of the bill is in the parts of section one dealing with the tax credit and the language education and career services centers, and in the part of section two dealing with the establishment of a regional guest-worker program.  That being said, I still believe that the symbolic parts of the bill are important.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

[1] Cleveland, OH
[5] Detroit, MI
[6] Baltimore, MD
[4] Peoria, IL
[3] Chicago, IL
[2] Elkhart, IN

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Due to recent changes in the composition of the Mideast Assembly, I am reintroducing this legislation.

Section 1
•   The Mideast Assembly recognizes that although English is the primary language of the region, there is no official language in the Mideast.  
•   The Mideast government will build English language education and career-services centers in the cities of Baltimore, Chicago (2x), Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Milwaukee, Nyman DC (2x), Richmond, and St. Louis. These centers will focus on helping first generation immigrants learn English and find jobs so that they can be productive members of Atlasian society.
•   Any first-generation immigrant who passes a region-issued English language exam at one of these centers will, along with their family, be permitted to reside in the region for an additional five years under the guest worker program described in Section 2, Clause 1 of this bill.

Section 2
•   The Mideast will establish a ten-year guest-worker program through which immigrant workers will be issued special visas that will allow them (along with their nuclear family) to reside in the region as guest workers for a period not to exceed ten years.  
•   During this time, all guest workers and their family are encouraged to work to gain citizenship during this ten-year window

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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There is no way I will support this or any lowering of our minimum wage.  

Yeah, I don't think that I can support this either.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I officially nominate Inks for Speaker.  We may not always agree, but his knowledge of Mideastern Assembly procedure is second to none.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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I would strongly, strongly urge my fellow Assemblymen to vote against this bill.  With all due respect to the Governor, it would give his office too much power by almost guaranteeing that neither the left or the right would ever get a super-majority.  It would also make it much harder for moderates to get elected to the Senate.  Again, I would urge my friends in the Assembly to vote against this bill.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

As it will likely fail at the federal level (This might be best at the regional level anyway), I introduce the following bill:

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I guess you could say this is on behalf of a constituent.

I wholeheartedly support this bill

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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[/quote]

Since there is still not a thread for this bill, I'll just say here that this bill has my enthusiastic support.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The Affordable Education Act of 2012

Section 1:
Clause 1: The Mideast will pay for 50% of the cost of any student's 4-year college education in the region who meets the conditions described in Clauses 2 and 3.
Clause 2: Clause 1 only applies to students who have both graduated from a Mideastern public high school with an A- or A G.P.A, received a 30 or higher overall on the ACT, or received a 2200 or higher on the SAT.
Clause 3: Clause 1 one applies to students who are attending a public university in the Mideast.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Just a quick note - The bill Mr. X just introduced will have to be amended, as I won't support it in its current form. Why? Well, for most public universities, having those type of grades and scores would likely give them almost a free-ride scholarship anyways. If we do something, I want there to be income requirements and they would need to be lower - I'd recommend looking at what the requirements are for the Georgia Hope scholarship. (Barnes probably knows this, if someone could inquire)


I am now leaving for Christmas break! I could be on here only a limited amount, or none at all! Bear with me.

@ Governor Tmthforu94: I agree and I assumed (and personally believe) that it would need to be amended, but there were certain aspects I was unsure about or unfamiliar with (I wanted input from both you and my fellow Assemblymen).  However, I think the overall idea is a really good one and wanted to at least get it out there so we can start deciding what form the bill should take.  Essentially, this proposal is like a legislative rough-draft and I was hoping for help turning it into a final draft (if that makes sense).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Happy Holidays to all

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Just a note: On any votes still open when Mr. X's replacement is made, if Mr. X has voted, his replacement will NOT be allowed to vote.  On any votes where he has not voted, his replacement will be allowed to vote.  I don't anticipate there being any votes where his replacement will be allowed to vote, but I would encourage Mr. X to vote anywhere he wants to.

Believe me, I intend to vote on everything I can down to the moment I leave office

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Resolution to Give Power Back to the People

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[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The Responsible Abortion Policy Act

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[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Considering that the Mideast does not recognize Thanksgiving as a regional holiday, is anyone opposed to having votes occur over Thanksgiving?  Due to the fact that we're still waiting on some GM analyses to come in for bills, I don't think we can get as much done if we don't hold votes over the holiday.  On the other hand, if most people won't be able to come on to vote, we can just push it off until the next session.

I don't know that I'll even be online during Thanksgiving, so I'd obviously prefer for the votes not to be held that day/

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I nominate Siren for Speaker.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I object regarding the motion for unanimous consent and request a one day extension of the deadline, if there is still only one nomination on the table then I would not object to unanimous consent.  This is nothing personal against Speaker Inks, but on principle, I don't like the idea of one person serving as Speaker for 17 terms.  I think I've even mentioned this to him in the past, 17 sessions as Speaker should be enough for any man

In other words: Nay

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Objection withdrawn, ftr

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Abstain

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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