House Legislation Introduction Thread

[Former President tack50]

I mean, if the bill passes and is good party label shouldnt matter. If its a bad bill it wont pass both houses and be signed. If it is a good bill and yall torpedo it over authorship thats some pretty awful governance. Most of these bill ideas were selected and authored with the expectation of bipartisan support which is why MB was willing to sponsor some. I mean lets look at the queue.

We have dumb reg repeals which until the last 3 more or less always had bipartisan support. Despite the labor senators refusing to debate or consider the last 3 bills in good faith, we nonetheless as a show of continuing good faith adopted the later recommendations of those labor senators who complained that the bills were too long and not broken into bills based on subject matter. Ok we're breaking them them up now and basing the grouping on theme ... now you're saying there are TOO MANY bills, that we need to consolidate them ... thats literally the opposite instruction of the labor legislators from 2 weeks ago. If we cant have big bills or small bills you are basically saying dont do anything. Dont think, dont speak, dont do your job. Thats unconscionable and an abandonment of the public duty imposed on elected legislators.

We have 2 bills by alancia on the floor, 1 has already received bipartisan support for having the Library of Congress do more and the other cuts wasteful military weapons that lefties normally foam at the mouth to cut.

We have criminal reform bills furthering a movement towards rehabilitation and away from the prison state which lefties often introduce and support.

We have bills reducing the deficit without cutting social spending as well as a bill to expand food stamps eligibility and more effectively screen out welfare cheats who deprive truly eligible persons of benefits.

We have a bill on emergency evacuations during a disaster. We have a bill increasing the number of environmental regulations the government has to comply with. We have a bill proposing a Malcolm X commemorative coin for Christ's sake.

We have a bill to empower the courts and congress on regulatory process, even though last time I checked the right does not control these institutions we wish to empower.

We have bills on trade and immigration featuring ideas backed by the laborite President elect. We are even working on a social security reform plan that eliminates the payroll tax cap, again something the President elect supports.

If yall cant be bothered to engage in real policy discussion, what is the point of a legislature? Literally identifying special parties by name for special treatment is not only unfair and repugnant to the spirit of legislative unity, its also really stupid. A year ago the Labor party didn't even exist. Under your rule if labor ceased to exist because of PUP pt. 2 and Peace had 1 seat, what then?

Why not actually write bills instead of punishing those who do? Not one of the bills you complain about are illegitimate or poorly written. Literally ratifying partisanship into the rules ... cant see how that does anything but make the 2 party hegemony more pronounced and confrontational.

First of all, maybe we should move this discussion somewhere else in order not to clog up this thread.

Anyways, you can't deny it most definitely looks very suspicious when out of nowhere 20 bills pop up in the House queue.

Are you seriously going to tell me you came up with all these bills between the election's end and right now? Not to mention 4 people coming up with them!

Even if the intentions are good, you can't deny it looks awfully suspicious.

[Former President tack50]

I ask Congress to consider this bill in solidarity with our Lord and Savior.

AN ACT
to crack down on frivolous copyright cases

Section 1 (Title)
i. The long title of this Act shall be, the "Dave Leip Copyright Defendant Protection Act." It may be cited as the "Leip Act."

Section 2 (Protecting creators from frivolous lawsuits)
i. In all cases where a copyright holder (hereafter "the plaintiff") shall bring suit against an individual or other party (hereafter "the defendant") alleging a violation or violations of their copyright under the laws of the Republic of Atlasia, the plaintiff must demonstrate either
(a) the alleged violation placed a significant burden on their ability to profit financially from the copyrighted work; or
(b) that any profit incurred by the defendant as a direct result of the alleged violation is in excess of $25,000.
ii. Should a copyright suit be decided in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff shall bear full financial responsibility for any legal costs incurred by the former in the course of their defense.

Section 3 (Resolution condemning copyright trolls)
i. RESOLVED, that it is the opinion of the Senate and House of Representatives that so-called "copyright trolls" are a species of imp distinguished by the total absence of grace or civilization even in comparison to their brother demons, and when they burn in Hell for eternity, it will be neither soon nor harsh enough.

For the record, a marginally modified version of this bill was already passed by the Senate

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=330349.25

However it seems the House never got around to introducing it? Either way, if it's faster this can be handled as Senate-passed legislation if the VP and House speaker want.

[Former President tack50]

NATIONAL COLLEGE ACCESS ACT

To nationalize the various enterprises doing tests for college access and put them under the control and supervision of the Republic of Atlasia

Be it enacted by the House of Representatives and Senate of the Republic of Atlasia in Congress assembled

SECTION I. NATIONALIZING BIG TEST MAKER
1. CollegeBoard is hereby nationalized and placed under the control of the Atlasian Department of Education

2. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is hereby nationalized and placed under the control of the Atlasian Department of Education

3. ACT, Inc. is hereby nationalized and placed under the control of the Atlasian Department of Education

SECTION II. PHASING OUT BAD TESTS AND PROGRAMS
1. The Scholastic Assessment Test (ACT) shall be phased out by the end of the 2021/2022 school year

2. The ACT test shall be phased out by the end of the end of the 2021/2022 school year

3. The Advanced Placement program (AP) shall be phased out by the end of the 2021/2022 school year

4. The Atlasian Department of Education shall work towards reducing the amount of public standardized tests supplied to public high schools

5. No private organization, regardless of their status as a non-profit organization, may supply standardized tests to any public high school in the Republic of Atlasia without authorization from the Regional governments

SECTION III. PAYING FOR THE NATIONALIZATIONS
1. In order to pay for this bill, 5% of the Atlasian Postal Service shall be privatized to the best bidders.

SECTION IV. ENACTMENT
1. This bill, except for the parts that specify otherwise, shall become enacted immediately after passage

[Former President tack50]

AN ACT
to preserve the integrity of Atlasian political primaries

Section 1 (Title and Definitions)
i. The title of this Act shall be, the "Integrity in Party Conventions Act."
ii. A "political convention," or simply "convention," refers to the meeting of a political party to decide candidates for political office and/or decide on party by-laws.

Section 2 (Laws)
i. No political convention, whether on a regional or federal level, is allowed to let members who have joined the party within the 24 hour period prior to the posting of the convention thread shall be allowed to participate in voting for political candidates or party by-laws.
ii. Party members who have joined their party within the 24 hour period mentioned in subsection (i) are allowed to participate in the conventions signing with an "observer" status.
   a. While being able to participate in the same way as regular convention members in every other member, members with "observer" status are not allowed to participate in any party votes.
    b. Members who have "observer" status shall not be allowed to participate if the majority of non-observer members agree that they cannot participate.

Section 3 (Enactment Clause)
i. This act shall take effect immediately after passage.
ii. Any political convention taking place during the passage of this bill is exempt from this law.

Guess I will sponsor

[Former President tack50]

Posting this in here because this passed the Senate but I don't think the House has debated it yet despite being enough slots available to do so?

SENATE BILL

To reform the immigration system into Atlasia

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Section 1: Name
1. This bill may be referred to as the "Immigration Reform Act of 2020"

Section 2: Categories of legal immigration to Atlasia
1. The following categories of legal permanent immigration to the Republic of Atlasia are hereby established:
a) Family Reunification
b) Job based immigration
c) Other immigration
2. This act shall not alter the composition or requirements for non-immigrant visas or for visas intended for temporary workers or students

Section 3: Family Reunification immigration
1. Family reunification visas may only be issued to the unmarried children, parents above the age of 65, unmarried siblings or to the spouse of an Atlasian citizen or permanent resident who has been living in the Republic of Atlasia for no less than 5 years.
2. During the application process for family reunification, priority shall be given to the foreign relatives of Atlasian citizens that have had no criminal records in the Republic of Atlasia for the past 10 years

Section 4: Job immigration
1a. Job immigration into the Republic of Atlasia shall be based on a points based system. All applicants who score 67 or more points shall be awarded a job immigration visa.
1b. Immigrants receiving a job visa may be able to bring with them to Atlasia as permanent residents their spouse as well as any children below 18 years of age.
1c. Job immigration visas may be revoked in the event of a failure to meet any continuing requirements as described in this Section for longer than 6 months consecutively.

2a. Up to 24 points may be awarded for proficiency in the English language; 6 each for Reading comprehension, Writing, Listening and Speaking.
2b. Immigrants scoring below an IELTS level of 5.5 (or equivalent) many not apply for a job immigration visa.
2c. Points shall be awarded for scoring 5.5 or above in each of the 4 categories described in section 3a; with 2 points for scoring between 5.5 and 5.99; 4 points for scoring between 6 and 6.99, 5 points for scoring between 7 and 7.99 and 6 points for scoring 8 or more points.

3. Up to 25 points may be awarded for education proficiency, according to the following equivalency list:
a) High School diploma: 5 points
b) 2 year apprenticeship after high school: 10 points
c) 3 year college degree after high school: 15 points
d) 4 year Bachelor's degree: 20 points
e) Double Bachelor: 22 points
f) Master's degree: 25 points
g) PHD: 28 points

4a. Up to 15 points may be awarded for prior job experience on an skilled job:
a) Less than 1 year of job experience: 0 points
b) Between 1 and 2 years of job experience: 9 points
c) Between 2 and 3 years of job experience: 11 points
d) Between 3 and 6 years of job experience: 13 points
e) 6 or more years of job experience: 15 points
4b. Skilled job shall be defined as a management job; a professional job that usually calls for a college degree (for example doctors or architects) or a technical job that usually calls for a college diploma or apprenticeship (for example plumbers or electricians)
4c. Part time jobs, defined as jobs comprising less than 30 hours per week of work; shall count as half for the purposes of counting the years from sections 4a.(a-e).
4d. a) Medical doctors who intend to work in an area, as determined by the Atlasian Census Bureau, to be rural or impoverished, shall be awarded an additional 7 points.
b) Any person who is awarded a job visa because of meeting the requirement in 5d. a) shall have 90 days to gain employment, or to regain employment after a job loss, in such area, or the job visa shall be revoked.

5a. Up to 12 points may be awarded for an applicant's age. Applicants between the ages of 18 and 35 shall be awarded the full 12 points. For each year after that, the number of points awarded shall be reduced by 1 per year, until reaching 0 at age 47.
5b. No persons under the age of 18 may apply for a job immigration visa to the Republic of Atlasia

6. Up to 25 extra points shall be awarded to any workers who attempt to immigrate to the Republic of Atlasia with a job offer for a job that is full time and skilled. These immigrants shall receive the full 25 points, everyone else shall receive 0 points

7. Up to 15 points may be awarded for extra requirements:
-The applicant having completed high school or a college degree in Atlasia shall award 5 points in this section
-Having any sort of legal job experience in Atlasia for at least one year shall award 10 points in this section
-10 points shall be awarded for having a relative living legally in the Republic of Atlasia. Relative shall be defined as the applicant's sibling, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild.

8. If the number of applicants surpasses the maximum amount of people who may apply for an immigrant visa, priority shall be given to the highest scoring applicants. In the case of a score tie; the applicants with job offers shall be admitted first.

Section 5. Other immigration
1. The following extra categories of permanent immigration to the Republic of Atlasia are hereby retained, with their current requirements:
a) Outstandingly skilled people, as currently immigrating through the EB1 visa program
b) Certain special categories of immigrants, as currently immigrating through the EB4 visa program
c) Investors, as currently immigrating through the EB5 visa program
2. A new immigration visa shall be created, targeted at retirees who desire to move to the Republic of Atlasia. People immigrating through this visa shall prove that they are financially independent, able to afford their retirement in Atlasia and may not be allowed to take any job offers in Atlasia. The details of this visa shall be devised by the department in charge of internal policy in Atlasia.

Section 6: Miscellaneous repeals
1. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is hereby repealed.

Section 7: Numbers of visas
1. Family reunification visas shall be capped at no more than 300 000 per year.
2. The total number of immigrant visas issued per year by the Atlasian government may not be more than 1/500th of the Atlasian population, as established in the last decennial census  available. This section shall refer to the census of NPCs made by the Atlasian Census bureau; and not to the census of active players in Atlasia done by the Registrar General.
3. At the discretion of the department responsible for internal policy, the total number of visas available may be reduced by 10% for every year the unemployment rate stays above 5%. Any reduction in the total number of visas shall be accompanied by a proportional reduction in the number of family reunification visas.
4. If the unemployment rate has stayed below 5% for at least 3 consecutive years, and wage growth has matched or surpassed the rate of inflation for the past 4 years; the Atlasian department for internal policy may increase the numbers in sections 7.1 and 7.2 by up to 30%, after a recommendation from the Immigration Analysis board
5. An Immigration Analysis board shall be established. This board shall have representatives from labor unions and small business associations and be in charge of making recommendations to the Atlasian department responsible for internal policy and to the Atlasian Congress with regards to the number of immigrants that should be allowed into Atlasia, as well as the requirements for said immigrants to fulfill.

Section 8: Enactment
1. This bill shall become enacted 90 days after the passage of this Act

People's Regional Senate
Passed 4-0-1 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,

[Former President tack50]

Can someone cosponsor this for me?

Joint Resolution

To provide for a one-time, temporary extension of budget levels to allow the budget to be posted and fully debated without a shutdown.

Be it Resolved in Both Houses of Congress Assembled,

Second Continuing Resolution to Avoid Shutdown

1. Funding for Atlasia's government will be maintained at current levels through February 28th, 2021 or until a Budget Resolution is adopted.

Since we are on the 27th and I am not sure if the House will manage to get the budget done in 4 days, here is a final extension, this time for only 1 month.

Motioning to suspend the rules and go to a final vote directly while we are at it, as well as posting this on the House thread too