SB 117-37: The Termination of COVID-19 Measures Act - REDRAFTED

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Dkrol Amendment fails 3-9-2-4.

Hearing no objection, my amendment is adopted.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Hearing no objection, Cao's amendment is adopted

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

motion for a final vote

[Joseph Cao]

Objecting to the motion, I haven't finished going through the proposed amendments yet.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

motion withdrawn for now

[Joseph Cao]

Still extremely busy this weekend but I will have this done a few days from now, hopefully.

[Joseph Cao]

Offering separate amendments to let people register their differences in opinion if necessary.

The Termination of COVID-19 Measures Act

Recognizing the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity to adapt our legislative and executive measures accordingly

Article 1: Revocation of COVID-19-specific Legislation

The following statutes are hereby repealed:
1. HB 23-02: Coronavirus Containment and Emergency Response Act
2. HB 23-12: More Funding to Combat COVID-19 Act
3. HB 24-03: Further Efforts in Pandemic Fighting Act (Passed)
4. HB 23-17: Jobs and Pay During the Coronavirus Pandemic Act (Passed)
5. HB 24-19: Extending Quarantines for New Arrivals Act (Passed)
6. HB 23-05: Emergency Economic Stimulus Act of 2020
7. HB 26-16: The Second Emergency Economic Stimulus Act of 2020 (Passed)
8. HB 29-12: COVID-19 Funeral Relief Assistance Act
9. HB 28-17: COVIDEBT Act (Debating)
10. HB 29-39: Third Emergency Economic Stimulus Act (Passed)
11. HR 30-08: People over Patents
1211. HB 29-42: Medical Leave and Compensation Act of 2021
1312. SB 105-02: Immunization Act of 2021 (Passed)

Article 2: Annulment of Ongoing COVID-19 Executive Orders

All executive orders related to COVID-19 that mandate continuing actions are hereby rescinded and declared null and void.

Disclaimer: Sunset Provisions

It is acknowledged that some of the aforementioned laws, statutes, regulations, or executive orders related to COVID-19 might have already expired or been rendered null due to built-in sunset provisions or other time-bound constraints. Nonetheless, this act seeks to ensure clarity and certainty regarding their termination status.

Article 3: Repeal of COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards

The issuance and requirement of COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards is hereby terminated. Individuals shall no longer be mandated to present or maintain such cards as proof of vaccination status. All entities, public or private, are prohibited from requiring these cards for any purpose

Article 4: Repeal of Pandemic Wealth Tax

I. The "Pandemic Wealth Tax" or any analogous federal tax implemented during or in response to a health crisis or pandemic is hereby repealed in its entirety.

Ia. All financial obligations or liabilities arising from said tax prior to its repeal remain enforceable, unless otherwise stated in subsequent provisions or amendments.
Ib. The federal government shall promptly address and provide guidance on any outstanding administrative or compliance issues stemming from the repeal of this tax.

The Termination of COVID-19 Measures Act

Recognizing the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity to adapt our legislative and executive measures accordingly

Article 1: Revocation of COVID-19-specific Legislation

The following statutes are hereby repealed:
1. HB 23-02: Coronavirus Containment and Emergency Response Act
2. HB 23-12: More Funding to Combat COVID-19 Act
3. HB 24-03: Further Efforts in Pandemic Fighting Act (Passed)
4. HB 23-17: Jobs and Pay During the Coronavirus Pandemic Act (Passed)
5. HB 24-19: Extending Quarantines for New Arrivals Act (Passed)
6. HB 23-05: Emergency Economic Stimulus Act of 2020
7. HB 26-16: The Second Emergency Economic Stimulus Act of 2020 (Passed)
8. HB 29-12: COVID-19 Funeral Relief Assistance Act
9. HB 28-17: COVIDEBT Act (Debating)
10. HB 29-39: Third Emergency Economic Stimulus Act (Passed)
11. HR 30-08: People over Patents
12. HB 29-42: Medical Leave and Compensation Act of 2021
1312. SB 105-02: Immunization Act of 2021 (Passed)

Article 2: Annulment of Ongoing COVID-19 Executive Orders

All executive orders related to COVID-19 that mandate continuing actions are hereby rescinded and declared null and void.

Disclaimer: Sunset Provisions

It is acknowledged that some of the aforementioned laws, statutes, regulations, or executive orders related to COVID-19 might have already expired or been rendered null due to built-in sunset provisions or other time-bound constraints. Nonetheless, this act seeks to ensure clarity and certainty regarding their termination status.

Article 3: Repeal of COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards

The issuance and requirement of COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards is hereby terminated. Individuals shall no longer be mandated to present or maintain such cards as proof of vaccination status. All entities, public or private, are prohibited from requiring these cards for any purpose

Article 4: Repeal of Pandemic Wealth Tax

I. The "Pandemic Wealth Tax" or any analogous federal tax implemented during or in response to a health crisis or pandemic is hereby repealed in its entirety.

Ia. All financial obligations or liabilities arising from said tax prior to its repeal remain enforceable, unless otherwise stated in subsequent provisions or amendments.
Ib. The federal government shall promptly address and provide guidance on any outstanding administrative or compliance issues stemming from the repeal of this tax.

Nothing concrete would be achieved by repealing a resolution that only urges the executive to ask the WTO to consider a temporary waiver on vaccine patents. When that waiver expires is out of our hands anyway.

Regarding amendment deux, if people are so eager to repeal CC&ER then I think they should be aware that the remainder of HB 29-42 that they are proposing to repeal is this:

Section 3; Miscarriage Bereavement Leave
1. All employed people in Atlasia shall be entitled to up to three days of bereavement leave in the following circumstances-
a) On the unplanned end of their pregnancy through a miscarriage or still-birth, where this is not the result of use of abortion services.
b) On the unplanned end of another person's pregnancy through a miscarriage or still-birth, where this is not the result of the use of abortion services, in these circumstances-
i) Where they are the person's spouse or partner.
ii) Where they would have been the biological parent of a child born as a result of the pregnancy.
iii) Where they had officially undertaken to be the primary carer of a child born as a result of the pregnancy.
iv) Where they are the spouse or partner of a person who had officially undertaken to be the primary carer of a child born as a result of the pregnancy.

Section 4; Compensation for Live Organ Donors
1. "Qualifying donor" is a person who satisfies these conditions-
a) they will forgo earnings as a result of taking unpaid leave or otherwise ceasing employment to allow for their recuperation from the surgery
b) both the donor surgery and the surgery to implant the organ will be carried out in Atlasia
c) the organ will be collected, implanted, and dealt with lawfully
2. A qualifying donor is entitled to receive up to twelve weeks worth of compensation from the federal government for recovering from surgery after donating an organ.
a) The compensation may be ceased when the qualifying donor either returns to employment or is medically certified to be fit to return to their employment, even if this is earlier than twelve weeks after the surgery.
3. Compensation may be given before the surgery where the qualifying donor undertakes activities in preparation for the surgery if-
a) they would not reasonably be able to undertake these activities without taking leave from their employment for that period, and
b) these activities are medically necessary for the surgery to be successfully carried out.
4. All compensation legislated for in this section shall be set at the level of the qualifying donor's full wage for the period.
a) The compensation shall be capped at $45 an hour.

Objectively nothing wrong with this portion from a COVID maximalist perspective. If y'all repeal the CC&ER then the parts of this bill you object to will be gone anyway. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Friendly

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Very well, I have no objection

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Amendment Adopted, Motion for a final vote

[DKrol]

I am still planning to oppose this legislation. I firmly believe that the erasure of the COVID pandemic will lead to further unnecessary, avoidable deaths, as well as have a chilling factor when the next national crisis occurs. We need to acknowledge that many people are still getting sick and dying from COVID every day, especially with seasonal surges. No one is advocating for lock downs at this time. But being ostriches won’t help anyone.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I am still planning to oppose this legislation. I firmly believe that the erasure of the COVID pandemic will lead to further unnecessary, avoidable deaths, as well as have a chilling factor when the next national crisis occurs. We need to acknowledge that many people are still getting sick and dying from COVID every day, especially with seasonal surges. No one is advocating for lock downs at this time. But being ostriches won’t help anyone.

We have never had lockdowns or mandates for seasonal influenza and that's essentially what covid is at this time, thus it should be treated the same. Treat the cases that occur, provide a vaccine for those who want it, nothing more. Leaving old laws on the books serves no purpose. Any Debate about what may happen down the road is terribly premature.

[DKrol]

Who is being hurt by these laws remaining on the books? Whose day-to-day lives are being made worse by these laws remaining on the books?

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The laws mentioned contain several provisions for quarantine and vaccine mandates which are oppressive at this point. Further, leaving an executive with emergency powers or funding that is no longer timely is never appropriate.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

A final vote is beginning.

Aye

[Vice President Christian Man]

Aye

[Dr. MB]

Nay

[Joseph Cao]

The laws mentioned contain several provisions for quarantine and vaccine mandates which are oppressive at this point. Further, leaving an executive with emergency powers or funding that is no longer timely is never appropriate.

Which are no longer in effect! We repealed the mandates, the funding was allocated and spent and can't be retrieved! That was a whole thing!

This bill doesn't do anything that I can see, it would certainly take up more unnecessary space on the books than most of the bills it's trying to repeal.

[Joseph Cao]

Leaving old laws on the books serves no purpose.

This is positively Maoist.

NAY on the final vote.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The laws mentioned contain several provisions for quarantine and vaccine mandates which are oppressive at this point. Further, leaving an executive with emergency powers or funding that is no longer timely is never appropriate.

Which are no longer in effect! We repealed the mandates, the funding was allocated and spent and can't be retrieved! That was a whole thing!

This bill doesn't do anything that I can see, it would certainly take up more unnecessary space on the books than most of the bills it's trying to repeal.

You repealed the mask mandate, the other mandates, in particular the vaccine one, appear to still be in law.

[Joseph Cao]

The laws mentioned contain several provisions for quarantine and vaccine mandates which are oppressive at this point. Further, leaving an executive with emergency powers or funding that is no longer timely is never appropriate.

Which are no longer in effect! We repealed the mandates, the funding was allocated and spent and can't be retrieved! That was a whole thing!

This bill doesn't do anything that I can see, it would certainly take up more unnecessary space on the books than most of the bills it's trying to repeal.

You repealed the mask mandate, the other mandates, in particular the vaccine one, appear to still be in law.

Great! That puts it on equal footing with the influenza vaccine.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Sure, covid is still a disease that widely circulates in our communities. That's very true. It is true today, it'll be true for the remainder of our lives. It's something we have to live with. The disease is endemic now today, not a pandemic, this is also what all scientists say, it has a similar status as influenza.

It's even hypothesized and researched at the moment that several past pandemics were also by coronaviruses, some of those still circulate today in the form of a cold today (A lot of colds are caused by coronaviruses). The 1889-1890 pandemic for instance is widely expected/theorised to have been a covid pandemic, with some evidence pointing towards it but additional research is needed.

One of the confusing things is that that whoever experienced that pandemic had higher protection against the Spanish flu, because some strains of influenza viruses disappeared around the time of that pandemic including seasonal circulating H1N1 (which was what the Spanish flu was). Something similar happened in our pandemic with the Yamagata strain being extinct because the covid virus outcompeted it (and our measures being effective against Yamagata). But circumstantional reasons such as worse hygiene among soldiers likely played a part too (this was at the end of WW1) for high mortality among the young here. Also influenza pandemics tend to cause a U-shape. Coronaviruses pandemics a J-shape (which was what 1889-1890 was more like, high mortality among elderly, way less among younger people).

The laws mentioned contain several provisions for quarantine and vaccine mandates which are oppressive at this point. Further, leaving an executive with emergency powers or funding that is no longer timely is never appropriate.

Which are no longer in effect! We repealed the mandates, the funding was allocated and spent and can't be retrieved! That was a whole thing!

This bill doesn't do anything that I can see, it would certainly take up more unnecessary space on the books than most of the bills it's trying to repeal.

You repealed the mask mandate, the other mandates, in particular the vaccine one, appear to still be in law.

Great! That puts it on equal footing with the influenza vaccine.

That's not true because it's not mentioned in the laws it's on equal footing with influenza vaccine.

Influenza vaccines are optional for highly vulnerable people or elderly. It is not really recommended for young people.

Sure, whoever wants a covid booster should have access to it, but we don't want a vaccine mandate. We want it to be optional and provided to whoever wants one, and esp. recommend one to vulnerable demographics.

___

Aside of that, it is not a pandemic anymore, so a lot of laws just need to be repealed, the bill in its current form after careful tweaks is one i can get behind on. But we really need to build a post-covid society without hurting human freedom and human rights.

[DKrol]

Nay

[reagente]

Aye

[Coastal Elitist]

Aye