NSG Senate Coffee Shop [NSG Senate]

[Ainin]

Guys, especially Finium:
Never put spoilers in quotes, it screws with the forum.

[Finium]

The last six sentence show that you did not figure out how to put ideas into legislative language. All I'm saying is that you need to reconsider how you write. I was able to solve this problem with one word; "purposeless", which makes a marked difference in the language, enforcement and brevity of the bill

I'm sorry for not being as 'superior.' As you

I'm not superior, I just thought about it long enough to solve a fairly simple problem. You could have done the same, but did not. I'm not saying you can't, just that you didn't.

[Wolfmanne]

You two, shut the fuck up, please. Now, why not work together and actually make an Animal Welfare Act (please title it this) based on other similar acts in the world, like the British one.

[Liberated Counties]

I'm sorry for not being as 'superior.' As you

I'm not superior, I just thought about it long enough to solve a fairly simple problem. You could have done the same, but did not. I'm not saying you can't, just that you didn't.

Regardless. Thank you for your input. I'll be sure to consider it for future redrafts. Do you want to help make a better one?

[Geilinor]

Guys, especially Finium:
Never put spoilers in quotes, it screws with the forum.

Oh, that's why it looked strange.

[Free South Califas]

Two sponsors to go on TMPA

Amend Transportation Ministry Provision Act 2013
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors: Ryan Pierce (i), Byzantium (NIFP)

The Aurentine Senate,

Regretting an understandable typographical mistake in an otherwise sound Act,

Also noting the original Author's stated intention to avoid the mistake in question,

Ensuring that all issues regarding navigable waterways are addressed by the correct agency,

Relieving the Transportation Ministry of the undue portion of its burden in this area,

Amends 'Transportation MInistry Provision Act 2013' as such:

In Article 5d, at the end of the sentence, after "agency", adding ", as regards transportation".

Amend National Census Bureau Establishment Act
Urgency: High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

The Aurentine Senate,

Lauding the goals of National Census Bureau Establishment Act (henceforth NCBEA) in general,

Expressing its hope that the census will allow better provision of government services to the people who need it,

Regretting the potential unintended consequences of levying a punitive fine for simply failing to return a National Census Bureau (henceforth NCB) survey, including potential discrimination against people with cognitive and/or communication differences which make traditional surveys difficult to administer or set aside time for, against those with transitory or no home address, etc.,

Hereby enacts the following changes into law:

1. Revising NCBEA article III such that the prior text is struck out and rendered null and void except for the following parts in this order: "III. Citizens who knowingly submit false information in response to an NCB survey shall be fined no more than 5,000 NSC."
-a. Noting that this does not change the punishment for knowingly submitting false information, but does remove the punishment for simply failing to respond to an NCB survey;

2. Amending NCBEA so as to add the following text: "V. As considered necessary by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may establish a Temporary Census Noncompliance Working Group which includes a reasonable number of equal voting members who are not otherwise paid employees of NCB, and empower it to study the potential causes and factors of noncompliance with NCB surveys and to issue appropriate suggestions which benefit society as a whole and take privacy concerns into consideration. This Working Group must be disbanded after issuing such suggestions, unless the Ministry insists that its continued work is necessary.

VI. With the specific or categorical approval of the Minister of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may in good faith implement such suggestions of the Working Group which do not each specifically incur significant added budgetary or privacy costs, and which would be useful alone or in combination with the others which are implemented.

VII. NCB are encouraged to promote the maximum possible accessibility to NCB surveys across all fields of disability, physical location, and other distinctions; including by deploying updated technology to include people with communication disorders."

Looking into the Commerce Ministry Act, I found it was a difficult-to-understand, metaphor-laden mess, which I could not rewrite because of not knowing the many obscure intentions of the several co-authors, so I drafted a separate proposal to strike it from everything. While I have ideological reasons to oppose CMA, this proposal does not address those - it's bad law and should be removed from consideration immediately.

Second draft below. This has been retooled as a repeal proposal. I will keep it ready to be changed into performing some other action against the CMA as necessary/supported. In the meantime, please consider it my justification for my motion.

Repeal the Commerce Ministry Act
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

NOTING that the Commerce Ministry Act is unclear, i.e. failing to define 'businesses' yet implying some separation between them and workers' associations of productions including "cooperatives";

1. DISTURBED that "businesses" may "be free to...deny recognition of such groups", including presumably all workers' cooperatives, which are also businesses by any sensible definition, e.g.

-A. Worker unions, associations, and cooperatives are freely to be formed/established. However, businesses can also be free to recognize or deny recognition of such groups, depending on the working environment of the establishment, but shall have no right to deny their workers of their duly given rights.

2. AGITATED by its circular clauses stretching the limits of sensible meaning, for example:

-A. REALIZING that businesses must not be overrun nor be accounted as one of the agencies of the government.

-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce. 7.) The assurance of the Ministry that such responsibilities are done efficiently and effectively to avoid future problems such as corporatocracies, privatization and business-government rivalries.

-C. MANDATES that the Ministry shall uphold impartial and unbiased service for the NSG in order for the responsibilities to be done in its maximum extent of effectivity.

3. EMBARRASSED by the possibility that such an Act might pass because of being bundled with the important Acts establishing a transportation ministry and census bureau, despite its problematic grammar which makes it even harder to understand, for example:

-A. WHEREAS, businesses have their own rules and regulations and remains uncontrolled by the NSG Government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities:
-C. OBSERVING that there are less or no regulations of the government concerning the rights and welfare of business institutions.

4. ANNOYED at clauses whose verbs seem to contradict their relevant noun phrases, or carry otherwise unclear meanings, such as:

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 4.) The cultural and social barrier between the businesses and the government
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry shall spearhead all economic activities by encouraging friendly foreign nations and states to initiate trade and communication with us and helping to facilitate investment in the country.
--i. Noting that this project of the Ministry to "spearhead all economic activities" seems contradictory to earlier passages;which appear to limit government control of business;

5. CONFUSED and annoyed at the prospect of having its time wasted by passing an Act which does not even clearly create the Ministry it proposes, e.g.

-A. PROPOSES that this new Ministry shall be called the "Ministry of Commerce". MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
--i. Noting that the above clauses do not follow any mention of such a new Ministry

6. INSISTING on clarity of purpose and mandate in law, and on clarity of law in general, such that all citizens generally know how to comport themselves at most times; thus rejecting metaphorical language with no inherent relevant meaning to the mandate of the Act, some of it bordering on the meaningless and all of it difficult to understand without sharing specific dialectical features with the author, e.g.

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that this Ministry shall be the open ground between the two aforementioned institutions.
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs
-E. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-F. ESTABLISHES the Ministry of Commerce to be in charge of checking the bounds between businesses and the State,

7. INDIGNANT at clauses which are impossible to carry out, to the extent that they have any sensible meaning, and therefore may have been included merely as propaganda or to enable later exploitation of the law, e.g.

-A. MANDATES that this Ministry shall forward the rights and welfare of both the workers and employees, the businesses and the government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce.
--i. The Senate notes that this vague and nearly meaningless clause could in fact allow the government to draw unlimited tax money for directly aiding the profit of private businesses, without even giving a justification for why taxpayers should "cooperate" with such entities.
-C. All government benefits established at the time being this Act is passed shall be granted to the workers' side of compensation. And these include health discounts, insurances, loan programs and the like.
-D. the freedom of the free market from government involvement and control,
--i.Noting that Aurentina commonly licenses private businesses to: hire employees, pay them less in wages than gained by the product of their labor, wait for up to two weeks to pay such wages without allowing employees to charge interest, provide loans to such businesses, etc.; and, as such, that the concept of a market free from government involvement and control is ideological, utopian and irrelevant at best;

8. DISPLEASED by the Act's sexist assumptions, e.g. "manpower";

9. ANNOYED by the Act's insistence on using two unclear nouns instead of one for emphasis:

-A. GRANTING that the workers' rights must be also upheld by the Ministry with importance and concern through the following privileges and bounds

10. DISMAYED by the possibility that vagueness of language in the Act would mean workers shall be paid at no greater rate for overtime work, and may be denied three weeks of vacation for their entire period of employment, perhaps their entire lives, and that representatives of all businesses could be barred from even publically discussing decisions being made by the government, e.g.
-A. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-B. Workers shall be guaranteed 2 weeks of paid vacation
-C. PROHIBITS the businesses to influence government decision-making processes and related affairs of the State.

11. UNCONVINCED that a separate Ministry of Commerce is required to perform such poorly-defined functions when there is already a Ministry of Work;

12. HEREBY REPEALS the Commerce Ministry Act (CMA), strikes it from the record of standing law, and renders it and its full text null and void.
-A. Regardless of the language used to strike standing law, Clause 12 is to be interpreted in good faith to the fullest possible extent with regard to removing CMA from consideration.

[Liberated Counties]

Guys, especially Finium:
Never put spoilers in quotes, it screws with the forum.

Oh, that's why it looked strange.

Could you link me up with the British version of the Animal Protection Act? I apologise for not listening to your advice.

[Commonwealth Prosecution Service]

Oh, that's why it looked strange.

Could you link me up with the British version of the Animal Protection Act? I apologise for not listening to your advice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Welfare_Act_2006

[The Jahistic Unified Republic]

Two sponsors to go on TMPA

Amend Transportation Ministry Provision Act 2013
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors: Ryan Pierce (i), Byzantium (NIFP)

The Aurentine Senate,

Regretting an understandable typographical mistake in an otherwise sound Act,

Also noting the original Author's stated intention to avoid the mistake in question,

Ensuring that all issues regarding navigable waterways are addressed by the correct agency,

Relieving the Transportation Ministry of the undue portion of its burden in this area,

Amends 'Transportation MInistry Provision Act 2013' as such:

In Article 5d, at the end of the sentence, after "agency", adding ", as regards transportation".

Amend National Census Bureau Establishment Act
Urgency: High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

The Aurentine Senate,

Lauding the goals of National Census Bureau Establishment Act (henceforth NCBEA) in general,

Expressing its hope that the census will allow better provision of government services to the people who need it,

Regretting the potential unintended consequences of levying a punitive fine for simply failing to return a National Census Bureau (henceforth NCB) survey, including potential discrimination against people with cognitive and/or communication differences which make traditional surveys difficult to administer or set aside time for, against those with transitory or no home address, etc.,

Hereby enacts the following changes into law:

1. Revising NCBEA article III such that the prior text is struck out and rendered null and void except for the following parts in this order: "III. Citizens who knowingly submit false information in response to an NCB survey shall be fined no more than 5,000 NSC."
-a. Noting that this does not change the punishment for knowingly submitting false information, but does remove the punishment for simply failing to respond to an NCB survey;

2. Amending NCBEA so as to add the following text: "V. As considered necessary by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may establish a Temporary Census Noncompliance Working Group which includes a reasonable number of equal voting members who are not otherwise paid employees of NCB, and empower it to study the potential causes and factors of noncompliance with NCB surveys and to issue appropriate suggestions which benefit society as a whole and take privacy concerns into consideration. This Working Group must be disbanded after issuing such suggestions, unless the Ministry insists that its continued work is necessary.

VI. With the specific or categorical approval of the Minister of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may in good faith implement such suggestions of the Working Group which do not each specifically incur significant added budgetary or privacy costs, and which would be useful alone or in combination with the others which are implemented.

VII. NCB are encouraged to promote the maximum possible accessibility to NCB surveys across all fields of disability, physical location, and other distinctions; including by deploying updated technology to include people with communication disorders."

Looking into the Commerce Ministry Act, I found it was a difficult-to-understand, metaphor-laden mess, which I could not rewrite because of not knowing the many obscure intentions of the several co-authors, so I drafted a separate proposal to strike it from everything. While I have ideological reasons to oppose CMA, this proposal does not address those - it's bad law and should be removed from consideration immediately.

Second draft below. This has been retooled as a repeal proposal. I will keep it ready to be changed into performing some other action against the CMA as necessary/supported. In the meantime, please consider it my justification for my motion.

Repeal the Commerce Ministry Act
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

NOTING that the Commerce Ministry Act is unclear, i.e. failing to define 'businesses' yet implying some separation between them and workers' associations of productions including "cooperatives";

1. DISTURBED that "businesses" may "be free to...deny recognition of such groups", including presumably all workers' cooperatives, which are also businesses by any sensible definition, e.g.

-A. Worker unions, associations, and cooperatives are freely to be formed/established. However, businesses can also be free to recognize or deny recognition of such groups, depending on the working environment of the establishment, but shall have no right to deny their workers of their duly given rights.

2. AGITATED by its circular clauses stretching the limits of sensible meaning, for example:

-A. REALIZING that businesses must not be overrun nor be accounted as one of the agencies of the government.

-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce. 7.) The assurance of the Ministry that such responsibilities are done efficiently and effectively to avoid future problems such as corporatocracies, privatization and business-government rivalries.

-C. MANDATES that the Ministry shall uphold impartial and unbiased service for the NSG in order for the responsibilities to be done in its maximum extent of effectivity.

3. EMBARRASSED by the possibility that such an Act might pass because of being bundled with the important Acts establishing a transportation ministry and census bureau, despite its problematic grammar which makes it even harder to understand, for example:

-A. WHEREAS, businesses have their own rules and regulations and remains uncontrolled by the NSG Government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities:
-C. OBSERVING that there are less or no regulations of the government concerning the rights and welfare of business institutions.

4. ANNOYED at clauses whose verbs seem to contradict their relevant noun phrases, or carry otherwise unclear meanings, such as:

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 4.) The cultural and social barrier between the businesses and the government
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry shall spearhead all economic activities by encouraging friendly foreign nations and states to initiate trade and communication with us and helping to facilitate investment in the country.
--i. Noting that this project of the Ministry to "spearhead all economic activities" seems contradictory to earlier passages;which appear to limit government control of business;

5. CONFUSED and annoyed at the prospect of having its time wasted by passing an Act which does not even clearly create the Ministry it proposes, e.g.

-A. PROPOSES that this new Ministry shall be called the "Ministry of Commerce". MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
--i. Noting that the above clauses do not follow any mention of such a new Ministry

6. INSISTING on clarity of purpose and mandate in law, and on clarity of law in general, such that all citizens generally know how to comport themselves at most times; thus rejecting metaphorical language with no inherent relevant meaning to the mandate of the Act, some of it bordering on the meaningless and all of it difficult to understand without sharing specific dialectical features with the author, e.g.

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that this Ministry shall be the open ground between the two aforementioned institutions.
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs
-E. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-F. ESTABLISHES the Ministry of Commerce to be in charge of checking the bounds between businesses and the State,

7. INDIGNANT at clauses which are impossible to carry out, to the extent that they have any sensible meaning, and therefore may have been included merely as propaganda or to enable later exploitation of the law, e.g.

-A. MANDATES that this Ministry shall forward the rights and welfare of both the workers and employees, the businesses and the government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce.
--i. The Senate notes that this vague and nearly meaningless clause could in fact allow the government to draw unlimited tax money for directly aiding the profit of private businesses, without even giving a justification for why taxpayers should "cooperate" with such entities.
-C. All government benefits established at the time being this Act is passed shall be granted to the workers' side of compensation. And these include health discounts, insurances, loan programs and the like.
-D. the freedom of the free market from government involvement and control,
--i.Noting that Aurentina commonly licenses private businesses to: hire employees, pay them less in wages than gained by the product of their labor, wait for up to two weeks to pay such wages without allowing employees to charge interest, provide loans to such businesses, etc.; and, as such, that the concept of a market free from government involvement and control is ideological, utopian and irrelevant at best;

8. DISPLEASED by the Act's sexist assumptions, e.g. "manpower";

9. ANNOYED by the Act's insistence on using two unclear nouns instead of one for emphasis:

-A. GRANTING that the workers' rights must be also upheld by the Ministry with importance and concern through the following privileges and bounds

10. DISMAYED by the possibility that vagueness of language in the Act would mean workers shall be paid at no greater rate for overtime work, and may be denied three weeks of vacation for their entire period of employment, perhaps their entire lives, and that representatives of all businesses could be barred from even publically discussing decisions being made by the government, e.g.
-A. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-B. Workers shall be guaranteed 2 weeks of paid vacation
-C. PROHIBITS the businesses to influence government decision-making processes and related affairs of the State.

11. UNCONVINCED that a separate Ministry of Commerce is required to perform such poorly-defined functions when there is already a Ministry of Work;

12. HEREBY REPEALS the Commerce Ministry Act (CMA), strikes it from the record of standing law, and renders it and its full text null and void.
-A. Regardless of the language used to strike standing law, Clause 12 is to be interpreted in good faith to the fullest possible extent with regard to removing CMA from consideration.

If you would be so kind, I would like to co-sponsor the Amend the NCBEA act.

[Jozef van Oostvoorne]

Two sponsors to go on TMPA

Amend Transportation Ministry Provision Act 2013
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors: Ryan Pierce (i), Byzantium (NIFP)

The Aurentine Senate,

Regretting an understandable typographical mistake in an otherwise sound Act,

Also noting the original Author's stated intention to avoid the mistake in question,

Ensuring that all issues regarding navigable waterways are addressed by the correct agency,

Relieving the Transportation Ministry of the undue portion of its burden in this area,

Amends 'Transportation MInistry Provision Act 2013' as such:

In Article 5d, at the end of the sentence, after "agency", adding ", as regards transportation".

Amend National Census Bureau Establishment Act
Urgency: High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

The Aurentine Senate,

Lauding the goals of National Census Bureau Establishment Act (henceforth NCBEA) in general,

Expressing its hope that the census will allow better provision of government services to the people who need it,

Regretting the potential unintended consequences of levying a punitive fine for simply failing to return a National Census Bureau (henceforth NCB) survey, including potential discrimination against people with cognitive and/or communication differences which make traditional surveys difficult to administer or set aside time for, against those with transitory or no home address, etc.,

Hereby enacts the following changes into law:

1. Revising NCBEA article III such that the prior text is struck out and rendered null and void except for the following parts in this order: "III. Citizens who knowingly submit false information in response to an NCB survey shall be fined no more than 5,000 NSC."
-a. Noting that this does not change the punishment for knowingly submitting false information, but does remove the punishment for simply failing to respond to an NCB survey;

2. Amending NCBEA so as to add the following text: "V. As considered necessary by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may establish a Temporary Census Noncompliance Working Group which includes a reasonable number of equal voting members who are not otherwise paid employees of NCB, and empower it to study the potential causes and factors of noncompliance with NCB surveys and to issue appropriate suggestions which benefit society as a whole and take privacy concerns into consideration. This Working Group must be disbanded after issuing such suggestions, unless the Ministry insists that its continued work is necessary.

VI. With the specific or categorical approval of the Minister of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may in good faith implement such suggestions of the Working Group which do not each specifically incur significant added budgetary or privacy costs, and which would be useful alone or in combination with the others which are implemented.

VII. NCB are encouraged to promote the maximum possible accessibility to NCB surveys across all fields of disability, physical location, and other distinctions; including by deploying updated technology to include people with communication disorders."

Looking into the Commerce Ministry Act, I found it was a difficult-to-understand, metaphor-laden mess, which I could not rewrite because of not knowing the many obscure intentions of the several co-authors, so I drafted a separate proposal to strike it from everything. While I have ideological reasons to oppose CMA, this proposal does not address those - it's bad law and should be removed from consideration immediately.

Second draft below. This has been retooled as a repeal proposal. I will keep it ready to be changed into performing some other action against the CMA as necessary/supported. In the meantime, please consider it my justification for my motion.

Repeal the Commerce Ministry Act
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors:

NOTING that the Commerce Ministry Act is unclear, i.e. failing to define 'businesses' yet implying some separation between them and workers' associations of productions including "cooperatives";

1. DISTURBED that "businesses" may "be free to...deny recognition of such groups", including presumably all workers' cooperatives, which are also businesses by any sensible definition, e.g.

-A. Worker unions, associations, and cooperatives are freely to be formed/established. However, businesses can also be free to recognize or deny recognition of such groups, depending on the working environment of the establishment, but shall have no right to deny their workers of their duly given rights.

2. AGITATED by its circular clauses stretching the limits of sensible meaning, for example:

-A. REALIZING that businesses must not be overrun nor be accounted as one of the agencies of the government.

-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce. 7.) The assurance of the Ministry that such responsibilities are done efficiently and effectively to avoid future problems such as corporatocracies, privatization and business-government rivalries.

-C. MANDATES that the Ministry shall uphold impartial and unbiased service for the NSG in order for the responsibilities to be done in its maximum extent of effectivity.

3. EMBARRASSED by the possibility that such an Act might pass because of being bundled with the important Acts establishing a transportation ministry and census bureau, despite its problematic grammar which makes it even harder to understand, for example:

-A. WHEREAS, businesses have their own rules and regulations and remains uncontrolled by the NSG Government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities:
-C. OBSERVING that there are less or no regulations of the government concerning the rights and welfare of business institutions.

4. ANNOYED at clauses whose verbs seem to contradict their relevant noun phrases, or carry otherwise unclear meanings, such as:

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 4.) The cultural and social barrier between the businesses and the government
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry shall spearhead all economic activities by encouraging friendly foreign nations and states to initiate trade and communication with us and helping to facilitate investment in the country.
--i. Noting that this project of the Ministry to "spearhead all economic activities" seems contradictory to earlier passages;which appear to limit government control of business;

5. CONFUSED and annoyed at the prospect of having its time wasted by passing an Act which does not even clearly create the Ministry it proposes, e.g.

-A. PROPOSES that this new Ministry shall be called the "Ministry of Commerce". MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
--i. Noting that the above clauses do not follow any mention of such a new Ministry

6. INSISTING on clarity of purpose and mandate in law, and on clarity of law in general, such that all citizens generally know how to comport themselves at most times; thus rejecting metaphorical language with no inherent relevant meaning to the mandate of the Act, some of it bordering on the meaningless and all of it difficult to understand without sharing specific dialectical features with the author, e.g.

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that this Ministry shall be the open ground between the two aforementioned institutions.
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs
-E. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-F. ESTABLISHES the Ministry of Commerce to be in charge of checking the bounds between businesses and the State,

7. INDIGNANT at clauses which are impossible to carry out, to the extent that they have any sensible meaning, and therefore may have been included merely as propaganda or to enable later exploitation of the law, e.g.

-A. MANDATES that this Ministry shall forward the rights and welfare of both the workers and employees, the businesses and the government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce.
--i. The Senate notes that this vague and nearly meaningless clause could in fact allow the government to draw unlimited tax money for directly aiding the profit of private businesses, without even giving a justification for why taxpayers should "cooperate" with such entities.
-C. All government benefits established at the time being this Act is passed shall be granted to the workers' side of compensation. And these include health discounts, insurances, loan programs and the like.
-D. the freedom of the free market from government involvement and control,
--i.Noting that Aurentina commonly licenses private businesses to: hire employees, pay them less in wages than gained by the product of their labor, wait for up to two weeks to pay such wages without allowing employees to charge interest, provide loans to such businesses, etc.; and, as such, that the concept of a market free from government involvement and control is ideological, utopian and irrelevant at best;

8. DISPLEASED by the Act's sexist assumptions, e.g. "manpower";

9. ANNOYED by the Act's insistence on using two unclear nouns instead of one for emphasis:

-A. GRANTING that the workers' rights must be also upheld by the Ministry with importance and concern through the following privileges and bounds

10. DISMAYED by the possibility that vagueness of language in the Act would mean workers shall be paid at no greater rate for overtime work, and may be denied three weeks of vacation for their entire period of employment, perhaps their entire lives, and that representatives of all businesses could be barred from even publically discussing decisions being made by the government, e.g.
-A. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-B. Workers shall be guaranteed 2 weeks of paid vacation
-C. PROHIBITS the businesses to influence government decision-making processes and related affairs of the State.

11. UNCONVINCED that a separate Ministry of Commerce is required to perform such poorly-defined functions when there is already a Ministry of Work;

12. HEREBY REPEALS the Commerce Ministry Act (CMA), strikes it from the record of standing law, and renders it and its full text null and void.
-A. Regardless of the language used to strike standing law, Clause 12 is to be interpreted in good faith to the fullest possible extent with regard to removing CMA from consideration.

I'd like to sponsor all three

[Finium]

ANIMAL WELFARE ACT

Urgency: Moderate
Author: Finium (PCP)
Sponsors:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

to defend the welfare of animals in Aurentina

THE SENATE,

APPALLED that humans have no limitation on their conduct towards animals

CONCERNED that this will lead to widespread abuse of helpless animals in Aurentina

RESOLVED that animals, while having no inherent right, deserve the respect of humans whenever possible

CRIMINALIZES the abuse of animals, aggravated cruelty against animals and the torture of animals.

---

1. No person or owner may beat, cruelly treat, torment, starve, overwork or otherwise abuse any animal.
2. No owner may abandon any animal where it may become a public charge or may suffer injury, hunger or exposure.
3. A person convicted of violating sections 1 or 2 is guilty of a delict. A second or subsequent conviction for a violation of this act is a felony.
3a. In addition to any other penalty provided by law, upon conviction for violating this act, the court may order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo any treatment at the convicted person's expense that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evidence. If the convicted person is a juvenile or a companion animal hoarder, the court must order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

4.) No person may intentionally commit an act that causes a companion animal to suffer serious injury or death. Aggravated cruelty does not include euthanasia of a companion animal through recognized methods approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
5.) A person convicted of violating Section 4 is guilty of a felony. A second or subsequent violation is a felony.
5a.) In addition to any other penalty provided by law, upon conviction for violating this Section, the court may order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo any treatment at the convicted person's expense that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation. If the convicted person is a juvenile or a companion animal hoarder, the court must order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

6.) A person commits animal torture when that person without legal justification knowingly or intentionally tortures an animal. For purposes of this act, and subject to subsection (b), "torture" means infliction of or subjection to extreme physical pain, motivated by an intent to increase or prolong the pain, suffering, or agony of the animal.
6b.) For the purposes of this act, "animal torture" does not include any death, harm, or injury caused to any animal by any of the following activities:
• (1) any hunting, fishing, trapping
• (2) any alteration or destruction of any animal done by any person or unit of government pursuant to statute, ordinance, court order, or the direction of a licensed veterinarian;
• (3) any alteration or destruction of any animal by any person for any legitimate purpose, including, but not limited to: castration, culling, declawing, defanging, ear cropping, euthanasia, gelding, grooming, neutering, polling, shearing, shoeing, slaughtering, spaying, tail docking, and vivisection; and
• (4) any other activity that may be lawfully done to an animal.
7.) A person convicted of violating Section 6. is guilty of a felony. As a condition of the sentence imposed under this Section, the court shall order the offender to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

[Byzantium Imperial]

under that law experimentation is illegal

[Finium]

under that law experimentation is illegal

Section 6, subsection b, clause 4, allows for the lawful use of animals, until experimentation is outlawed elsewhere, it would remain legal.

[Byzantium Imperial]

under that law experimentation is illegal

Section 6, subsection b, clause 4, allows for the lawful use of animals, until experimentation is outlawed elsewhere, it would remain legal.

fair enough

where is my right to using lions in gladiatorial comabt?

[Ainin]

Section 6, subsection b, clause 4, allows for the lawful use of animals, until experimentation is outlawed elsewhere, it would remain legal.

fair enough

where is my right to using lions in gladiatorial comabt?

There is none because THAT is some of the worst animal abuse ever.

[Finium]

Section 6, subsection b, clause 4, allows for the lawful use of animals, until experimentation is outlawed elsewhere, it would remain legal.

fair enough

where is my right to using lions in gladiatorial combat?

As long as a veterinarian has approved it, it would be legal, though the veterinarian might loose his or her license

[Finium]

You two, shut the fuck up, please. Now, why not work together and actually make an Animal Welfare Act (please title it this) based on other similar acts in the world, like the British one.

BTW, my act is based off the Illinois welfare statutes.

[Free South Califas]

[align=center]ANIMAL WELFARE ACT

Urgency: Moderate
Author: Finium (PCP)
Sponsors:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

to defend the welfare of animals in Aurentina[/]

THE SENATE,

APPALLED that humans have no limitation on their conduct towards animals

CONCERNED that this will lead to widespread abuse of helpless animals in Aurentina

RESOLVED that animals, while having no inherent right, deserve the respect of humans whenever possible

CRIMINALIZES the abuse of animals, aggravated cruelty against animals and the torture of animals.

---

1. No person or owner may beat, cruelly treat, torment, starve, overwork or otherwise abuse any animal.
2. No owner may abandon any animal where it may become a public charge or may suffer injury, hunger or exposure.
3. A person convicted of violating sections 1 or 2 is guilty of a delict. A second or subsequent conviction for a violation of this act is a felony.
3a. In addition to any other penalty provided by law, upon conviction for violating this act, the court may order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo any treatment at the convicted person's expense that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evidence. If the convicted person is a juvenile or a companion animal hoarder, the court must order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

4.) No person may intentionally commit an act that causes a companion animal to suffer serious injury or death. Aggravated cruelty does not include euthanasia of a companion animal through recognized methods approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
5.) A person convicted of violating Section 4 is guilty of a felony. A second or subsequent violation is a felony.
5a.) In addition to any other penalty provided by law, upon conviction for violating this Section, the court may order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo any treatment at the convicted person's expense that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation. If the convicted person is a juvenile or a companion animal hoarder, the court must order the convicted person to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

6.) A person commits animal torture when that person without legal justification knowingly or intentionally tortures an animal. For purposes of this act, and subject to subsection (b), "torture" means infliction of or subjection to extreme physical pain, motivated by an intent to increase or prolong the pain, suffering, or agony of the animal.
6b.) For the purposes of this act, "animal torture" does not include any death, harm, or injury caused to any animal by any of the following activities:
• (1) any hunting, fishing, trapping
• (2) any alteration or destruction of any animal done by any person or unit of government pursuant to statute, ordinance, court order, or the direction of a licensed veterinarian;
• (3) any alteration or destruction of any animal by any person for any legitimate purpose, including, but not limited to: castration, culling, declawing, defanging, ear cropping, euthanasia, gelding, grooming, neutering, polling, shearing, shoeing, slaughtering, spaying, tail docking, and vivisection; and
• (4) any other activity that may be lawfully done to an animal.
7.) A person convicted of violating Section 6. is guilty of a felony. As a condition of the sentence imposed under this Section, the court shall order the offender to undergo a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and to undergo treatment that the court determines to be appropriate after due consideration of the evaluation.

I like a lot of things about this, but there's the philosophical objection over right (which would not prevent me from sponsoring it), and more importantly the blanket exemptions in 6b. We carefully crafted our proposal to allow hunting, without allowing torture to happen simply because one is hunting, for example. I don't see that kind of real-world adaptability in AWA. Yet, anyway.

[Free South Califas]

Amend Transportation Ministry Provision Act 2013
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors: Ryan Pierce (ind), Byzantium (NIF), Jozef van Oostvoorne (C)

The Aurentine Senate,

Regretting an understandable typographical mistake in an otherwise sound Act,

Also noting the original Author's stated intention to avoid the mistake in question,

Ensuring that all issues regarding navigable waterways are addressed by the correct agency,

Relieving the Transportation Ministry of the undue portion of its burden in this area,

Amends 'Transportation MInistry Provision Act 2013' as such:

In Article 5d, at the end of the sentence, after "agency", adding ", as regards transportation".

Amend National Census Bureau Establishment Act
Urgency: High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (Com) | Co-sponsors: Jarrod Thuman (Obj), Jozef van Oostvoorne (C)

The Aurentine Senate,

Lauding the goals of National Census Bureau Establishment Act (henceforth NCBEA) in general,

Expressing its hope that the census will allow better provision of government services to the people who need it,

Regretting the potential unintended consequences of levying a punitive fine for simply failing to return a National Census Bureau (henceforth NCB) survey, including potential discrimination against people with cognitive and/or communication differences which make traditional surveys difficult to administer or set aside time for, against those with transitory or no home address, etc.,

Hereby enacts the following changes into law:

1. Revising NCBEA article III such that the prior text is struck out and rendered null and void except for the following parts in this order: "III. Citizens who knowingly submit false information in response to an NCB survey shall be fined no more than 5,000 NSC."
-a. Noting that this does not change the punishment for knowingly submitting false information, but does remove the punishment for simply failing to respond to an NCB survey;

2. Amending NCBEA so as to add the following text: "V. As considered necessary by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may establish a Temporary Census Noncompliance Working Group which includes a reasonable number of equal voting members who are not otherwise paid employees of NCB, and empower it to study the potential causes and factors of noncompliance with NCB surveys and to issue appropriate suggestions which benefit society as a whole and take privacy concerns into consideration. This Working Group must be disbanded after issuing such suggestions, unless the Ministry insists that its continued work is necessary.

VI. With the specific or categorical approval of the Minister of Treasury and Finance, the NCB may in good faith implement such suggestions of the Working Group which do not each specifically incur significant added budgetary or privacy costs, and which would be useful alone or in combination with the others which are implemented.

VII. NCB are encouraged to promote the maximum possible accessibility to NCB surveys across all fields of disability, physical location, and other distinctions; including by deploying updated technology to include people with communication disorders."

Looking into the Commerce Ministry Act, I found it was a difficult-to-understand, metaphor-laden mess, which I could not rewrite because of not knowing the many obscure intentions of the several co-authors, so I drafted a separate proposal to strike it from everything. While I have ideological reasons to oppose CMA, this proposal does not address those - it's bad law and should be removed from consideration immediately.

Second draft below. This has been retooled as a repeal proposal. I will keep it ready to be changed into performing some other action against the CMA as necessary/supported. In the meantime, please consider it my justification for my motion.

Repeal the Commerce Ministry Act
Urgency: Very High | Drafted by: Saul Califas (C) | Co-sponsors: Jozef van Oostvoorne (C)

NOTING that the Commerce Ministry Act is unclear, i.e. failing to define 'businesses' yet implying some separation between them and workers' associations of productions including "cooperatives";

1. DISTURBED that "businesses" may "be free to...deny recognition of such groups", including presumably all workers' cooperatives, which are also businesses by any sensible definition, e.g.

-A. Worker unions, associations, and cooperatives are freely to be formed/established. However, businesses can also be free to recognize or deny recognition of such groups, depending on the working environment of the establishment, but shall have no right to deny their workers of their duly given rights.

2. AGITATED by its circular clauses stretching the limits of sensible meaning, for example:

-A. REALIZING that businesses must not be overrun nor be accounted as one of the agencies of the government.

-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce. 7.) The assurance of the Ministry that such responsibilities are done efficiently and effectively to avoid future problems such as corporatocracies, privatization and business-government rivalries.

-C. MANDATES that the Ministry shall uphold impartial and unbiased service for the NSG in order for the responsibilities to be done in its maximum extent of effectivity.

3. EMBARRASSED by the possibility that such an Act might pass because of being bundled with the important Acts establishing a transportation ministry and census bureau, despite its problematic grammar which makes it even harder to understand, for example:

-A. WHEREAS, businesses have their own rules and regulations and remains uncontrolled by the NSG Government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities:
-C. OBSERVING that there are less or no regulations of the government concerning the rights and welfare of business institutions.

4. ANNOYED at clauses whose verbs seem to contradict their relevant noun phrases, or carry otherwise unclear meanings, such as:

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 4.) The cultural and social barrier between the businesses and the government
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry shall spearhead all economic activities by encouraging friendly foreign nations and states to initiate trade and communication with us and helping to facilitate investment in the country.
--i. Noting that this project of the Ministry to "spearhead all economic activities" seems contradictory to earlier passages; which appear to limit government control of business;

5. CONFUSED and annoyed at the prospect of having its time wasted by passing an Act which does not even clearly create the Ministry it proposes, e.g.

-A. PROPOSES that this new Ministry shall be called the "Ministry of Commerce". MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
--i. Noting that the above clauses do not follow any mention of such a new Ministry

6. INSISTING on clarity of purpose and mandate in law, and on clarity of law in general, such that all citizens generally know how to comport themselves at most times; thus rejecting metaphorical language with no inherent relevant meaning to the mandate of the Act, some of it bordering on the meaningless and all of it difficult to understand without sharing specific dialectical features with the author, e.g.

-A. WHEREAS, there is no existing government agency to protect the boundary between businesses and government institutions.
-B. MANDATES that this Ministry must be created to solidify the aim in placing boundaries and bridges between businesses and the government.
-C. MANDATES that this Ministry shall be the open ground between the two aforementioned institutions.
-D. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 5.) The gate-keeping of the Ministry in its inert aim to separate the businesses and the government in the state's political affairs
-E. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-F. ESTABLISHES the Ministry of Commerce to be in charge of checking the bounds between businesses and the State,

7. INDIGNANT at clauses which are impossible to carry out, to the extent that they have any sensible meaning, and therefore may have been included merely as propaganda or to enable later exploitation of the law, e.g.

-A. MANDATES that this Ministry shall forward the rights and welfare of both the workers and employees, the businesses and the government.
-B. MANDATES that the Ministry will work under the following responsibilities: 6.) The cooperation between the businesses and the Government through the Ministry of Commerce.
--i. The Senate notes that this vague and nearly meaningless clause could in fact allow the government to draw unlimited tax money for directly aiding the profit of private businesses, without even giving a justification for why taxpayers should "cooperate" with such entities.
-C. All government benefits established at the time being this Act is passed shall be granted to the workers' side of compensation. And these include health discounts, insurances, loan programs and the like.
-D. the freedom of the free market from government involvement and control,
--i.Noting that Aurentina commonly licenses private businesses to: hire employees, pay them less in wages than gained by the product of their labor, wait for up to two weeks to pay such wages without allowing employees to charge interest, provide loans to such businesses, etc.; and, as such, that the concept of a market free from government involvement and control is ideological, utopian and irrelevant at best;

8. DISPLEASED by the Act's sexist assumptions, e.g. "manpower";

9. ANNOYED by the Act's insistence on using two unclear nouns instead of one for emphasis:

-A. GRANTING that the workers' rights must be also upheld by the Ministry with importance and concern through the following privileges and bounds

10. DISMAYED by the possibility that vagueness of language in the Act would mean workers shall be paid at no greater rate for overtime work, and may be denied three weeks of vacation for their entire period of employment, perhaps their entire lives, and that representatives of all businesses could be barred from even publically discussing decisions being made by the government, e.g.
-A. Overtime pay shall be paid as well.
-B. Workers shall be guaranteed 2 weeks of paid vacation
-C. PROHIBITS the businesses to influence government decision-making processes and related affairs of the State.

11. UNCONVINCED that a separate Ministry of Commerce is required to perform such poorly-defined functions when there is already a Ministry of Work;

12. HEREBY REPEALS the Commerce Ministry Act (CMA), strikes it from the record of standing law, and renders it and its full text null and void.
-A. Regardless of the language used to strike standing law, Clause 12 is to be interpreted in good faith to the fullest possible extent with regard to removing CMA from consideration.

If you would be so kind, I would like to co-sponsor the Amend the NCBEA act.

Many thanks for your support, Senator. It has been added to this post. The movement to stop blaming citizens for bad surveys is now officially cross-aisle

I'd like to sponsor all three

Your solidarity is greatly but humbly appreciated, Senator Your sponsorship has been added to all in this post.

Current count (5 required?):
Amend TMPA: 4
Amend NCBEA: 3
Repeal CMA: 2

[New Zepuha]

I will oppose the repeal motion on the CMA.

[Free South Califas]

I will oppose the repeal motion on the CMA.

I note your opposition with deference and respect. However, if you might indulge me, I am curious which of my repeal arguments was incorrect in your estimation?

[Welsh Cowboy]

I will oppose the repeal motion on the CMA.

I note your opposition with deference and respect. However, if you might indulge me, I am curious which of my repeal arguments was incorrect in your estimation?

Senator, I don't necessarily oppose repealing the Commerce Ministry Act, but your repeal's assertion that perhaps a Commerce Ministry isn't necessary is slightly unnerving. Do you not think there should be a ministry primarily focused on workers as well as a ministry primarily focused on businesses?

[Potenco]

Vehicular Safety Act
Proposed by: Senator von Hohenzollern (NIFP) | Sponsors:

The people of Aurentina are the primary concern of the Senate's interests, and we shall be invested in the right to create laws of the road that all drivers are expected to observe. With this, we write the Vehicular Safety Act.

All drivers in Aurentina must be holders of a vehicular drivers license, which they may receive starting at the age 16. They are required to hold a restricted learner's permit for at least 40 weeks before acquiring their drivers license, and must log at least a week's worth of driving to qualify, starting at age 15.

All drivers that hold British-issued driving permits shall be allowed to maintain their current permit.

All drivers are to wear safety belts at all times. Those violating such laws shall be fined for reckless endangerment.

All persons driving motorbikes are required to wear a helmet. Any violations of said law shall be fined for reckless driving and reckless endangerment.

Extra permits are required to operate vehicles larger than a conventional four-wheel vehicle.

How about making license categories?

D3: Roadfaring Scooter
D2: Motorcycle
D1: Small vehicle

C3: Small truck
C2: Minibus
C1: Ambulance

B3: Truck
B2: Fire Truck
B1: Bus

A1: Police cruiser

This needs to include a commercial driving license

Otherwise, I cosponsor

[New Zepuha]

I will oppose the repeal motion on the CMA.

I note your opposition with deference and respect. However, if you might indulge me, I am curious which of my repeal arguments was incorrect in your estimation?

I do not view it as incorrect, rather it goes against what I believe in. I'm a very capitalist man and I wish the people of business to do as they see fit. I also support the right of a business to deny recognition of certain groups. I'd be more keen on this if exceptions were made for groups using coercive tactics to unionize an industry. I'm also not keen to repealing things for grammatical and syntax errors. As well as the assumption that the term manpower is sexist, totally unfounded. Manpower is widely accepted by both sexes/gender, and really has no sexist meaning in my view. Now point 10. I agree with you.

[New Zepuha]

How about making license categories?

D3: Roadfaring Scooter
D2: Motorcycle
D1: Small vehicle

C3: Small truck
C2: Minibus
C1: Ambulance

B3: Truck
B2: Fire Truck
B1: Bus

A1: Police cruiser

This needs to include a commercial driving license

Otherwise, I cosponsor

We should also require you qualify to drive Large vehicles like commercial trucks or fire trucks.