Congress Bills Packet – Rocket Invitational 1/16/16
A bill to give the courts full authority to decide punitive costs.
Section 1: Courts will now have unlimited power to decide punitive costs.
Section 2: Since the Campbell vs. State Farm Supreme Court case in 2003, punitive costs have been limited to less than 10 times that of the original amount. This Bill will override that rule and restore the court’s ability to decide what amount of money can be considered punitive.
Section 3: This Bill will come into effect immediately after being passed.
Section 4: All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.
Submitted by Jack Johnson of
Covington Latin School.
A RESOLUTION to improve success after high school.
1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE STUDENT CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
2. SECTION 1. The Arts classes will be considered social studies
SUB SECTION A. Arts will be considered valid credits and ways to explore career opportunities, not extracurricular. This isn’t to add classes, but validate the ones already in place.
SUB SECTION B. These Arts Classes include; Art History, Drama/Theater, Forensics, and Artwork courses normally provided by schools.
3. SECTION 2. Schools must offer at least one common math credit.
SUB SECTION A. Students must have access to math based curriculum that will help them in their after high school daily life skills.
SUB SECTION B. These credits can include accounting, consumer math, and economics.
4. SECTION 3. One half credit of real work experience is mandatory to prepare students for the work force.
SUB SECTION A. This will be a half day work program such as with the Benjamin Franklin Academy Work Study Program where students will have the chance to experience the real work force before they are on their own.
SUB SECTION B. If students do not have the capability to fulfill this half credit (whether its transportation or comprised situations blocking this from happening) they can work at school in positions such as concessions, after game clean up, tutoring, lunch staff, and ETC.
Respectfully submitted by
Aislin Hawks-SKY Academy
An act to establish the Text-to-911 program in emergency call centers statewide
Section I: The current emergency communications system in most states consists solely of the option for voice calls. This bill would introduce texting as an alternative for 911 communications, not to replace but rather to expand upon the provision of safety for all United States citizens. There are only two states that currently provide this service statewide, with many individual counties and cities that provide this service. Emergency response centers would like to continue to encourage the “call if you can, text if you can’t” premise in order to maximize their potential for a quick response, but also to provide a backup communication option.
Section II: When someone uses the feature of text-to-911, a text message will appear on a computer used by the call center. The 911 emergency operator can then respond to the message and address the situation, providing necessary aid for the hearing-impaired or those in a dire situation in which they cannot perform a voice call, such as domestic abuse. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and other mobile network providers already support the text-to-911 service through a mandate by The Federal Communications Commission.
Section III: This program would be implemented by the United States Department of Justice. This Department would provide the funding for the technology necessary for text-to-911 for at least one emergency call center in each county across the United States.
Section IV: The United States Department of Justice would work with each individual state’s Department of Public Safety or Department of Police, which would then work with local county governments to establish the technology in order to ensure trilateral cooperation between the federal, state, and local governments.
Section V: The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) are the two national organizations that currently provide text-to-911 training for operators in addition to the standard certification process.
Section VI: Funding for the technology necessary varies based upon the individual county’s current technology. Based on an average estimated need of $2,000 per county, the United States will appropriate $6,284,000 for this purpose. The United States Department of Justice maintains a yearly budget of approximately $29 billion. Currently, 911 centers are partially funded by a small fee of $0.75 per call, paid by service providers (AT&T, Verizon, etc). The new option of texting would generate more revenue through this small fee. This additional revenue would go toward paying the United States Department of Justice back for the amount that they used, and will then be used to sustain maintenance of the program in the county, thus establishing a self-funding system.
Section VII: This bill will go into effect January 1, 2017. This implementation will begin with the training processes and the provision of technology. Counties would be able to officially begin to offer text-to-911 services under their own jurisdiction, based on the time it takes to acquire the technology and trained employees.
Author: Samantha Miller
School: Boyle County HS
A Bill to Require All Candidates for Public Offices to Reveal their Records
BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
SECTION 1. The United States will require all candidates for public offices to reveal their tax and criminal records.
SECTION 2.Too many people have been elected into public offices with questionable history. Knowing their criminal and tax records would help us better understand who exactly we are voting for.
SECTION 3. The Federal Election Commission will enact and enforce this for the General Election. The specific state’s State Election Commission will enact and enforce this on for state and local elections.
SECTION 4. If the candidate does not disclose this information to the public, he/she will no longer be eligible for candidacy.
SECTION 5. This legislation will go into effect in the beginning of the 2018 year.
SECTION 6. All other laws and/or passages of Congress that conflict with this bill will be considered null and void.
Introduced for Congressional Debate by Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
A Bill to Limit Class Size in Public Schools
BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
SECTION 1. The United States will require all levels of public schools (elementary, middle, and high) to limit the size of classrooms to a maximum of 20 students.
SECTION 2. Limiting class sizes in public schools will allow for a higher quality of teaching so that all students in public schools will be able to succeed to their fullest potential, as there will be more individual teaching done.
SECTION 3. The United States Department of Education will enact and oversee the passage of this bill. The Office of the Inspector General along with the state inspector generals will enforce this bill in public schools.
SECTION 4. If a public school has a classroom or multiple classrooms with more than 20 students, a fine of $250 per classroom will be charged monthly to the state Board of Education until the class size is corrected.
SECTION 5. This legislation will go into effect in the beginning of 2018 school year.
SECTION 6. All other laws and/or passages of Congress that conflict with this bill will be considered null and void.
Introduced for Congressional Debate by Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.
A Resolution to Condemn States That Allow Convicted Rapists to Seek Parental Rights of Children Conceived From Rape
WHEREAS, in 31 states, a person that is tried and convicted of rape can go to court to gain parental rights of the child conceived during rape; and
WHEREAS, this only further causes emotional damage to the victims of rape; and
WHEREAS, states ought to protect the victims of rape from their rapists; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, by this Congress that: the federal government ought to condemn state legislatures that fail to pass legislation prohibiting rapists from seeking parental rights over the children conceived from the rape they committed.
Introduced by,
Trinity High School
A Bill to Aid Syrian Refugees
BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED THAT:
SECTION 1. The threshold of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States shall hereby increase to 10,000. Refugees must be registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), processed by a Resettlement Support Center (RSC), and receive screening from the Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and Department of Homeland Security.
SECTION 2. The Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration shall oversee the passage and enforcement of this bill.
A. The Department of Homeland Security shall assist in the screening of refugees.
SECTION 3. This law shall go into effect immediately upon passage.
SECTION 4. All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.
Introduced for Congressional Debate by Sacred Heart Academy