Yoinks! How to pass a bill Texas Style

Hobbes

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/05/11/0119205.shtml?tid=158&tid=103&tid=172&tid=219

Long and short of it. A bill passed in the US to help support the troops/Iraq people/Tsunami victims. The bill passed 100-0

Added on as a rider bill was the RealID act. Kind of a national ID card for the US with a central database.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050509-4886.html

Gives information on it.. however what is frightening is the added part in that which basically allows the head of Dept of Homeland Security to override any law they see fit and no court is allowed try them if they break those laws.

Unreal.

BlitzKrieg

does it affect people visiting america in any way (a temp I.D while in states etc?)

bonkey

From what I've been reading, this type of "non-related rider" is a long-established tradition in the US.

After all - wasn't one of the serious nail's in Kerry's coffin that Republicans made a HUGE deal that he voted against funding for the US troops in Iraq....when in actual fact he ws voting against the rider attached to it.

Dead Jack

It aughtent to affect visitors, it looks more like a centralised database of personal information, and standard nationwide rules for things like driving licenses

Hobbes

bonkey wrote:

From what I've been reading, this type of "non-related rider" is a long-established tradition in the US.

Indeed, wasn't there a simpsons episode about it?

I could see it now, anyone voting against this would be lambasted in the press as someone who doesn't support the troops or all those people who died in the tsunami.

Dead Jack

the DHS thing is very worrying though

theoretically without checks and balances the white house has absolute power, but thats what happens when you have a constitution wiht some clauses designed not to look too bad when inevitably broken (as in other cases), and with more clauses kept in for when you don't want to break them (like this one)
but its only for the DHS this time, and if it gets enough publicity it'll set scandall rather than precedent

Basically it makes all actions enacted following one law exempt from the breaking of any other laws, and makes the law being followed beyond judicial review, so the law itself can't be changed on the grounds of being unconstituional.

sceptre

Hobbes wrote:

Indeed, wasn't there a simpsons episode about it?

Dropped into the Bart's Comet episode IIRC. And referenced in Lisa Goes To Washington. A simple google for unrelated rider will give an idea of how common this is.

As outlined in that arstechnica article, it's potentially pretty worrying indeed. At a glance it's another nail in the coffin of personal rights across the water, especially when tacked on to an unrelated bill with pretty much no debate on the extra provision.

Dead Jack

It'll go through alright, but to be honest I'm not too worried.

If it gets enough strong opposition after the fact, then what the republicans have done will be made unrepeatable, limiting them to one little law no one wants to use much anyway, and for that they'll have traded the NRA's nemesis, the database of gun owners, and more big government in that it extends the precedent for nationwide standards with the drivers licence standards.

So to combat it the left just need to lobby for protection of judicial review, and as payback lobby for additional security to be placed on this security database to stop it being accessed without say... individual judicial review?

Hobbes

Dead Jack wrote:

It'll go through alright, but to be honest I'm not too worried.

Welcome to yesterday It has already gone through with 100-0 majority.

Dead Jack

Hobbes wrote:

Welcome to yesterday It has already gone through with 100-0 majority.

You're quite right, I'd meant to say that I agreed that the bill's going through like that was inevitable.

(You may have caught me there, but I did read it all properly, and it was only a slip).