Northeast Assembly Thread

[homelycooking]

1. The votes for (a) are two and the votes for (c) are two. The Lieutenant Governor is invited to break the tie.
2. The ayes are three and the nays are one. The bill is so amended.
3. The ayes are two and the nays are three. The bill is not amended.

Regrettably, we cannot proceed until Simfan breaks the tie.

[homelycooking]

The bill has been amended thus:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

We will now have a 24-hour final vote on the bill at question.

[homelycooking]

On the bill: Aye.

It's unfortunate that our legislature has been captured by anti-freedom fanatics.

The honorable member from Massachusetts is cautioned once more against unparliamentary attacks on other members.

I was also informed by the Chair that during the vote I could also bring up a motion to move Senator Napoleon's proposed new Constitution for the Region to the top of the queue.

The honorable member from Massachusetts moves to suspend section 2a of the Standing Order on Legislative Procedure. Members will vote aye or nay on the motion: this will be a 24 hour vote.

[homelycooking]

Yes. The ayes are four and the nays are two, so the bill passes.

Obviously, though, we must wait on the vote on the motion to suspend section 2a of SOAP before we can continue.

Aye on the motion.

[homelycooking]

Mr. Speaker, please advise the Governor if the honorable member from New Jersey, Mr. Elyski, has missed at least three votes on legislation in a row in the Assembly.

He has, Governor Winfield.

On the previous question the ayes are three and the nays are two. Section 2a of SOAP is suspended and the Assembly will now consider the bill proposed by the gentleman from Massachusetts.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=138801.0

Debate will last 48 hours.

[homelycooking]

Is the gentleman from Maine offering amendments to the proposed Constitution?

[homelycooking]

I also don't want the Lieutenant Governor's position to be contingent upon an irrelevant statistic. As I've said, I would prefer three representatives with no Lieutenant Governor. I don't really see how the office could be made useful at this point, and I'd like to see it abolished regardless of how many members the Assembly has.

As a compromise, perhaps it would be acceptable to name, for example, Hartford the region's executive capitol, New York the legislative capitol and Philadelphia the judicial capitol.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I can't support this amendment because you've misspelled "capitol" and eliminated PA and DE from the region!

As to your other amendment, FallenMorgan, I am wary of melding the Assembly and the office of the Governor. That said, you brought up an important point. It may be useful to permit citizen referenda on Assembly legislation. If we are going to decrease the Assembly's size, we should be sure to increase citizens' participation in lawmaking.

[homelycooking]

Also, Mr Speaker: 'capital' is the correct spelling for the city that serves as a country's seat of government (derived from Latin capus, head); 'capitol' is the correct spelling for the building or complex that provides the primary public space used for the activities of said government (derived from the name of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, which doesn't have the same etymology). I apologize if this correction is deemed desultory, but the Senator's original usage is correct.

Not in the slightest. The Speaker stands corrected (thanks for the etymology, by the way).

In that case I would support five, with no Lieutenant Governor.

That's a fair solution.

[homelycooking]

Time for debate has expired. The following amendments will now come to a vote:

FallenMorgan's first amendment:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

FallenMorgan's second amendment:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Nathan's amendment to Article II, sec. 6:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Members will vote aye or nay on each amendment. This vote will last 24 hours.

[homelycooking]

1. Nay
2. Nay
3. Aye

[homelycooking]

On the first question the ayes are two and the nays are four. The amendment is not agreed to.

On the second question the ayes are two and the nays are four. The amendment is not agreed to.

On the third question the ayes are six and the nays are zero. The amendment is agreed to.

The Assembly will now vote on the bill as a whole:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[homelycooking]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

This will be a 24 hour vote.

[homelycooking]

Aye

[homelycooking]

On the previous question the ayes are two and the nays are two. The new constitution is not agreed to, as it has failed to attain a supermajority of affirmative votes.

The Assembly will now consider the following bill, sponsored by the honorable member from Pennsylvania.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Debate will last 48 hours and begins now.

[homelycooking]

The Speaker would like to announce that he will be absent from the Assembly starting this evening and continuing until this Sunday afternoon. Anyone willing to serve as Speaker in his absence is welcome to; all that would presumably be asked of him would be to close debate and open a vote on the above bill on Saturday morning, hold the vote on the bill which would close Sunday morning, and open debate on the "Partners in Civic Engagement Act" Sunday morning.

I have a few problems with the Prison Self-Sustainment Act: production of 75% of food from gardens would probably entail growing plants in Northeast gardens that are not endemic to the region and would not thrive due to climate or precipitation restrictions. If you change the percentage or specify that all local produce which could be grown in prisons is required to be, that problem could be solved.

Also, section 3 might not be feasible, especially if the extra land is not adjacent to the prison.

[homelycooking]

The Speaker has returned from his weekend excursion to the great state of New York.

Time for debate on the bill has expired. The following amendment to section 2 of the bill, proposed by the honorable member from Massachusetts, will come to a vote:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Members will vote aye or nay: this will be a 24-hour vote. Unless the honorable member from Pennsylvania informs me otherwise, I will consider the two amendments he proposed to his own bill to be friendly.

[homelycooking]

Aye on the amendment.

[homelycooking]

On the previous question the ayes are four and the nays are zero. The bill is thus amended.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The above bill will now come to a vote. Members will vote aye or nay: this will be a 24-hour vote.

[homelycooking]

Aye

[homelycooking]

On the previous question the ayes are three and the nays are three. It is up to Lt. Gov. Simfan to break the tie.

[homelycooking]

I need to know when my full-term election is, too.  Is that later this month?

The election begins Friday!

[homelycooking]

On the previous question the ayes are three and the nays are four. The bill is not agreed to.

The Assembly will now consider the following bill:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Debate will last 48 hours.

[homelycooking]

I amend the bill as follows:

Partners in Civic Engagement Act

The Government of the Northeast shall match any individual contribution dollar-for-dollar, up to five hundred thousand dollars, to any tax-exempt charity or organization that promotes, and is actively engaged in, the establishment and continued operation of:

- after-school programs in school districts in which more than one quarter of the student population is impoverished;
- educational or recreational summer camps for disabled or handicapped youth;
- public libraries;
- educational, domestic or recreational services for senior citizens;
- parks and land conservation organizations;
- animal shelters;
- soup kitchens for the poor, addiction rehabilitation centers or groups and homeless shelters; and
- medical research into finding a cure or more effective treatment for a communicable disease or genetic disorder.

[homelycooking]

While the idea of the taxpayer matching a $500,000 "donation" to the Church of Scientology in order to hawk their "NarcoNon" program might warm the hearts of many, others might see that this bill presents a profoundly flawed idea.

It certainly may be flawed in that the definitions of the individual groups may be impossible to write so as to restrict any efforts toward exploitation or malfeasance.

[homelycooking]

I am considering withdrawing this bill. The problems of enforcement, protection against abuse or fraud and overall ambiguity that this bill might bring about seem to be too great at this point to overcome.