HB 24-22: Covering For Our Citizens Act (Debating)

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Introducing the following amendment to fix the percentages. There are plenty of other changes I'd like to make, but I'll start small to avoid objections.

Covering For Our Citizens Act

Section 1: Title

1. This legislation may be cited as/referred to as Covering For Our Citizens Act, or CFOC as a shorthand.

Section 2: Providing Security to the Homeless

1. The federal government shall ensure fair housing and living to the homeless through the establishment of a Department of Landless People (D.P.L.)
a.The budget for the department shall be 0.6% of the federal budget for the previous fiscal year

b. The goal of the department is to ensure that the needs of the homeless are covered

I. 15%30% of the allocated funds shall be designated for the nutritional needs of the homeless
II. 20%40% of the allocated funds shall be designated for the housing needs of the homeless
III. 20%40% of these allocated funds shall go towards the creation of public homeless shelters (40%)
IV. 30%60% of these allocated funds shall go towards sanitation and inspection control (60%)
V. 10%20% of the allocated funds shall be designated for job and vocational training programs
VI. 5%10% of the allocated funds shall be directed to subsiding the medical needs of the participants

Section 3: Better Conditions for Undocumented Workers

1. The application and enforcement of work security standards for undocumented workers to ensure that the same work standards apply all across, and to prevent them from being a source of infection.
a. Additionaly undocumented workers will be given the same rights to compensation and benefit rights that non-undocumented workers have, in accordance with the fact that many of them pay into state and local taxes in an amount not ignorable by the government.
b. Any testing of COVID-19 infection shall remain anonymous to ensure that no deportation takes place.

Section 4: Penalties for Employers

1. If an employer has been proven to have not provided it’s workers with the necessary PPE equipment when they have ability to purchase such equipment, said employer shall be penalized $1,000 dollars for the violation for every 3 employees endangered by the lack of supplies.

Section 5: Equal Stimulus Check Program

Section II of the SB 23:06 COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Act shall be changed to

1. Beginning April 1, 2020 and ending on August 1, 2020, every Atlasian who has lived in the nation for more than one year and is of of 18 years of age or older, regardless of income or employment status, shall receive $2,000 on the first day of each month and $1,000 for each dependent.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

This is a reasonable bill and I strongly support Section 3 in particular. As we have seen at home as well as abroad in Singapore and other countries, undocumented workers are especially susceptible to slipping through the cracks of our healthcare system, a situation we cannot afford in the midst of a public health crisis. I will defer to others on the finer points of Section 2's funding allocation, but it appears to be broadly sound.

I'd also like a clarification from the sponsor regarding Section 5, given that the temporary UBI signed into law is meant to last until October 1. Is the key change meant to be the expansion in coverage from "child" to "dependent"?

One difference I noticed: it seems that this bill is based on an outdated version of the COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Act, because the version that was actually passed by the Senate (on April 16) has the UBI period lasting until October 1. Section 5 in this bill that we're discussing (which was written in May) seems to be based on an earlier, un-amended version of the COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Act with UBI ending on August 1. I fixed this in my amendment.

The other key change (other than the one you noted) is that the original UBI only applied to citizens. The amendment in this bill apparently extends this to anyone who has lived in the country for a year. Frankly I don't see why we don't just use the same criteria used for the RL economic impact payments.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Is the amendment friendly? Not sure what the procedure is here for citizen-sponsored stuff.