HB 21-12: Let People Travel Act (Final Vote)

[Pericles]

A BILL

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

SECTION I: NAME

1. This bill may be cited as the Let People Travel Act.

SECTION II: NO MORE DUMB FEES

1. No fee or tax shall be charged for first-time application or renewal of any Atlasian passport book or passport card.
2. Passport photographs shall be available to be taken free of charge at every facility which accepts passport applications.
3. Section 5 of the Citizen Affordability Act, "The fee associated with the filing of a passport application is hereby increased by $10", is hereby struck out.

People's Regional Senate
Passed 6-0 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,

Sponsor:
House Designation: HB 21-12

[Pericles]

This needs a sponsor.

[thumb21]

This seems like fairly reasonable legislation, I'll sponsor.

[Pericles]

24 hours to object to thumb21 sponsoring this.

[fhtagn]

No objection to thumb sponsoring it, but considering the lazy Senate failed to explain why they feel it was necessary to cut a fee that was the main funding source for a program that the Labor Party wanted, someone here better come up with an answer. 

[fhtagn]

This also was an important question raised in the Senate that the bill's sponsor conveniently refused to answer:

What is the expected cost of this to these facilities? A lot of these facilities that take passport applications are post offices, the financial concerns of which have been the topic of multiple bills over the past three years now.

[RC (a la Frémont)]

This also was an important question raised in the Senate that the bill's sponsor conveniently refused to answer:

What is the expected cost of this to these facilities? A lot of these facilities that take passport applications are post offices, the financial concerns of which have been the topic of multiple bills over the past three years now.

Very surprised this wasn't answered considering the importance of it. If possible, I would like the previous sponsor, MB, to answer the question, or would like at least an estimate from our presumptive new one.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

This is a great bill. Passports ought to be free.

[Pericles]

thumb21 is recognized as the sponsor.

[JGibson]

I am on board with this bill.

[thumb21]

Just to be clear, I do intend to respond to the concerns above. With an Atlasian election, a rl election and a couple of big deadlines early next week, I am very busy for the next few days.

[YE]

tbh I agree with fhtagn's concerns raised when it was on the Senate side or at least am interesting in hearing a response.

[Blair]

FWIW we all support our post offices here & want to see them thrive; we shouldn't stop doing something good (ending the cost of getting a passport) when we can still find ways to support our post offices.

Would be happy to offer an amendment which sees them get support & ensures that they don't lose out whilst allowing everyone to still be able to afford to get a passport.

[thumb21]

Blair's response is pretty much what I wanted to say. There are many ways we can get the money to fund this bill, which is a fairly modest reduction in costs for Atlasians.

According to Forbes, 42% of Americans own passports which has been steadily increasing over time. According to the US government, 21,103,475 passports were issued per year. Lets say 10% of those were new applicants, which seems a little high given the trajectory, but lets give us some room. The price for a passport under this bill is $125, down from $135.

10*21,103,475 is $211,034,750.

So the reduction in fees from section 3 costs $211 million.

21,103,475/10 is 2,110,348. 2,110,348*125 is $263,793,500.

So the elimination of first time fees costs $264 million.

Passport photos vary in price significantly but $15 seems to be the number for post offices. Someone more informed on that can correct me if I'm wrong on that.

21,103,475*15 is $316,552,125.

So the elimination of passport photo in section 2 costs around $317 million.

So the total cost of the bill is around $782 million. I believe this is something worth paying and as Blair said, we can find a way to maintain support to post offices.

[fhtagn]

There's a lot of "we can find ways" but no ideas being thrown out on what ideas they have to come up with the funding. Simply throwing away funding sources and figuring it out later isn't acceptable. Especially when you have post offices struggling with funding as is, and expecting more cuts because $15 per photo (that a person can easily do themselves if they don't want to pay the fee) is somehow "unreasonable".

[thumb21]

It is fairly straight forward to put a bit of extra money into the postal service, the question is whether you consider a very modest cut in passport costs worthwhile. I'm not sure why someone who presumably cares about reducing taxes wouldn't want to reduce this cost imposed by the government on people.

[fhtagn]

It is fairly straight forward to put a bit of extra money into the postal service, the question is whether you consider a very modest cut in passport costs worthwhile. I'm not sure why someone who presumably cares about reducing taxes wouldn't want to reduce this cost imposed by the government on people.

This bill simply creates more problems than it solves.

[thumb21]

A BILL

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

SECTION I: NAME

1. This bill may be cited as the Let People Travel Act.

SECTION II: NO MORE DUMB FEES

1. No fee or tax shall be charged for first-time application or renewal of any Atlasian passport book or passport card.
2. Passport photographs shall be available to be taken free of charge at every facility which accepts passport applications.
3. Section 5 of the Citizen Affordability Act, "The fee associated with the filing of a passport application is hereby increased by $10", is hereby struck out.
4. The Atlasian Government shall invest an additional $400,000,000 per fiscal year in the Atlasian Postal Service.

People's Regional Senate
Passed 6-0 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,

An amendment to maintain and slightly extend funding for the postal service.

[fhtagn]

Yes, because let's just create money and worry about where that money is coming from later.

Further proving how irresponsible the Labor Party is.

[YE]

24 hours to object to said amendment.

[thumb21]

Yes, because let's just create money and worry about where that money is coming from later.

Further proving how irresponsible the Labor Party is.

You may have a point if this bill costed 10 billion, 15 billion. It is an extremely modest bill and ultimately the deficit of $542 billion becoming a deficit of $543 billion really isn't a major issue. I'm certainly interested in reducing the deficit, getting stuck on the costs of one bill isn't how you do that.

Every bill has a cost and unless you support the complete abolishment of government , you agree that some costs are worth paying. It would be more productive if there was a debate around why you don't think this is a cost worth paying rather than complaining that there might be a miniscule dent in the deficit. This bill is a very modest cut in passport prices to make it more affordable for people. Having some form of ID is absolutely essential for many people and to cut the price will life slightly easier.

[thumb21]

Motion for a final vote

[fhtagn]

Objecting to the final vote motion.

[thumb21]

Cloture vote

72 hours

[thumb21]

Aye