Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with legislation

The Perfectly Good Use Of Your Time Act.

Doctor Suarez — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:57:12 -0800

Name some recent pieces of legislation whose name was actually the opposite of the bill's real intent. Basically, I just need as many examples as I can get of bills introduced in congress that were given appealing names that masked their true, often opposite intent. A hypothetical example would be a "Clean Skies" bill that actually loosened air-pollution standards and thus intended to dirty the skies.

And yes, it can involve SOME subjective judgment on your part. For instance, I find the "Defense of Marriage Act" to be the opposite because it turns marriage into a politicized, exclusive institution instead of the voluntary arrangement it is supposed to be. Also, the "Employee Free Choice Act" is a good example because, by removing the secret ballot, it causes employees to be less free in their voting.

Thanks.

Making a bathroom accessible ... costs and requirements in the UK

davemee — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:53:08 -0800

I'm involved in the set-up of a public access space (in Manchester, England). While we have two ground-floor bathrooms, neither is wheelchair-accessible. Having spent no time in a wheelchair, nor time in a bathroom with a person in a wheelchair, I'd like to know a few things about making one of the bathrooms accessible... I'd really appreciate any insight from anyone who's been through this process.

My main concerns, in no fixed numerical order, are

How critical are the grips and handles accessible toilets are usually festooned with? Can we get by without them?
What's the minimum we should reasonably install, based on legal (UK) mandates and costs?
How much can I expect this to cost?
Are there any recommended suppliers? Cost is a large aspect of recommendation eligibility.
Are there any sources of public assistance in installing this? (I'm concerned that providing access would consume the funding we have for our first few public events in one fell swoop.)

Thanks for any insight you can provide - both from the project itself and our future visitors!

What countries have laws or legislative rules requiring legislation to stay on-topic?

LightStruk — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:25:42 -0800

What countries have laws or legislative rules requiring legislation to stay on-topic? Like many American citizens, I'm frustrated with the tendency of our elected officials to attach unrelated earmarks and amendments to "must-pass" legislation. Almost invariably, such additions are not in the country's best interest, but they aren't removed from the legislation because either there's no time (it's MUST PASS LEGISLATION!), it's buried in a bill that's thousands of pages long, or no one will vote against the whole bill because of some silly earmark.

What democracies have rules in place requiring legislation to stay on-topic to prevent this kind of abuse? How well are those rules working?

I seem to recall that one of Australia's legislative bodies instituted just such a rule recently, but no amount of Google-fu is helping me find it.

contacting legislators who aren't mine?

dlugoczaj — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:17:46 -0800

Etiquette for contacting state legislators (not necessarily my own)? A few days ago, my house was burglarized and the burglars took some jewelry. Today a policeman brought me some photocopies to identify, and the items were absolutely mine. Unfortunately, he said, the burglars pawned them on the day of the theft, and by the time the cops got to the pawnshop near the end of the day, the pawnshop had already sold the jewelry to a scrap dealer for meltdown.

The policeman told me that there was currently a bill in the state legislature requiring pawnshop dealers to hold jewelry for seven days before selling to a third party. Even though there's no way for me to benefit from it personally at this point, I would really like this legislation to be passed!

I found the bill on the state website, and currently it's in a joint committee. I checked the membership and my elected officials are not on it. I would still really like to contact someone at the legislature about this bill. What is the appropriate way to go about it? Do I write to my legislator anyway and ask her to convey testimony to the committee? Can I contact the members of the committee directly?

Even though they are not strictly my elected representatives, I think this bill would benefit crime victims statewide, and I'd like them to hear about it before brushing the bill off to potentially die in committee.

What makes a U.S. congressional bill non-binding?

metadave — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:53:31 -0800

What makes a U.S congressional bill non-binding? Is there a way to tell from the text of the bill itself? I have seen a number of news articles that state that the U.S. congress has passed non-binding legislation. My understanding is that because this legislation is non-binding, it has no legal force, does not have to be signed by the president and can't be vetoed by the president.

If the details of what I have said so far are wrong, please let me know but my main question is: What makes a bill non-binding. I have looked through the text of several bills that have been identified as non-binding but I don't see the word "binding" anywhere in them. I don't see anything in the text that of the bill that specifically says it does not go on to the President.

Perhaps it's just procedural. Maybe a non-binding bill just doesn't get passed on to the president? Maybe there's a little check box up in the corner that says "binding [x]" This seems like it should be an obvious thing but I have not yet found an answer.

Thanks.

- Dave

Unilateral Presidential power for low-carbon initiatives?

dondiego87 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:40:23 -0800

A question about Presidential power -- specifically, for the implementation of carbon reduction initiatives including a cap-and-trade system. Yesterday, I watched the Presidential Forum on Global Warming and America's Energy Future. Sens. Clinton and Edwards both said that they would create a cap-and-trade system to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, among with many other measures regarding America's energy use.

However, what I didn't hear for most of the measures (including the trading schemes) was an explanation of how the candidate, as President, would implement his or her ideas. So I ask you, hive mind. How would this work? Suggesting legislation for Congress to consider seems like a pretty weak tack. Are the candidates planning to implement their plans unilaterally through Executive Order?

(A little history: A cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide was established during the first Bush administration, with the White House pushing amendments to the Clean Air Act and Congress adopting those amendments. The mores of the legislature may be different now with regards to carbon dioxide than they were then for sulfur dioxide.)

Please, only productive replies. Thanks!

What is NYC doing about pests?

Drohan — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:43:08 -0800

[NYCFilter] What steps has NYC taken to deal with vermin? And what isn't it doing that it could? What city initiatives exist to deal with pests in NYC apartments? Like the NYC Rodent Academy? Are there similar initiatives for bedbugs, cockroaches, assorted other vermin? And what are some things the city could/should do that it hasn't to address bug & rodent problems? I heard about some legislation introduced last year to forbid the sale of reconditioned mattresses as a means of preventing bedbugs spreading but I don't know if it ever got passed.

I want to be able to discuss our website design knowledgeably

Tawita — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:21:52 -0800

I work for the government of a small developing country, and we are looking at making all of our legislation freely available on the internet. We hope to be able to obtain the services of a virtual volunteer to do the web design and setup for us for free, but I need help in getting clear in my own mind exactly what it is we will be asking our volunteer to do for us. I have an idea of what I want - the laws indexed alphabetically, then available section by section in html, with the option of downloading each Act in its entirety as a pdf; simple, clean, accessible design, with low bandwidth requirements. The content will be relatively static, but we will need to be able to update the site ourselves to include new laws as they are passed. We will also want to be able to make CDs of the entire site available for purchase by those who don't have internet access.

There are very few/no web designers in our part of the world, and I am not really up with the terminology. I want to be able to give clear instructions and discuss our needs relatively knowledgeably.

What should I know? On what technology should the site be based? Do we need a content management system? What sort of experience should I be looking for in our volunteer?

Bonus points if you can point me to examples of websites that meet my criteria (I already know about AustLII and its siblings).

How can the little guy influence legislation through campaign donations?

jayder — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:23:47 -0800

I was recently having a discussion with someone about whether an individual can influence the passage of legislation, by making campaign donations, in the same way that we know corporations do. It seems unlikely, to me, that individual donations would be as effective as corporate donations. But I have a few questions about this. Here are the questions I have:

(1) Do you think it would be effective to call the legislator's office, saying, "You may recall my name from the $500 donation I recently made to your reelection campaign. I just wanted to let you know that I'm very interested in the passage of this legislation." (Or do legislators routinely ignore requests like this?)

(2) What kind of timing considerations are important? Does it matter when, in the process, the donation is made?

(3) Who should receive a donation? For example, if you anticipate a problem with the bill getting out of the calendar committee, does it make sense to give a donation to every member of the calendar committee, or is that just wasting money?

(4) Do you think individual donations in the amount of a few hundred dollars, to legislators you think could be instrumental in getting the bill passed, would actually make a meaningful difference in whether the legislation passes, or would it be equivalent to pissing in the ocean and expecting it to turn yellow?

Is there a really good schedule for upcoming activities in the U.S. Senate available online?

fugitivefromchaingang — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 08:46:24 -0800

Is there a really good schedule for upcoming activities in the U.S. Senate available online? Senate.gov just doesn't seem to have a schedule for the upcoming weeks. There's a bit of one, a "tentative" 2007 Legislation schedule, but it only says when the Senate is in session, not which bills are going to be introduced, considered, and voted on on which days.

Is there a schedule available that actually states what business the Senate will be taking up on what days? I only need one that covers the next few months. Thanks, guys.

An Act of Propaganda

oncogenesis — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:16:50 -0800

Help me find a quotation. I have a vague memory of a quote from a respected literary figure (perhaps Orwell) which states that the name given to a piece of legislation will always denote the opposite of the purpose of the legislation. In effect, the names of our laws are propaganda. The USA PATRIOT Act springs immediately to mind. Are you familiar with this alleged quote? Who said it and what did they say? Or did my drug-addled brain make the whole thing up?

How do you track legislation without bill numbers?

shivohum — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:07:18 -0800

How do you track U.S. federal legislation for which bill numbers -- either of the house record (H.R.) or Senate (S.) variety -- have not yet been assigned? In the debate about the recent network neutrality amendment to a house bill (the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006"), I noticed that it was extraordinarily difficult to find the bill itself on any of the normal bill tracking websites like Govtrack or Thomas.

It was difficult enough finding the bill's name mentioned in the articles about the network neutrality amendment. Clearly the article's authors assume their readers are not interested in such "technical" information. But I found it ridiculous that I couldn't find the bill on the bill-tracking sites. I found it serendipitously when I stumbled on the house energy committee's dedicated website from google.

The problem, I discovered was that the bill lacked a house record (H.R.) number -- a status I believe it will maintain until the house committee marks it up and sends it out to the full house. I'll put aside for a moment the fact that many of the "civics 101" citizen-help websites mislead readers by suggesting that a record number is the first thing a bill gets.

Is there some centralized way of tracking these bills rather than visiting every relevant committee website? Am I missing some feature on Govtrack or Thomas that would enable me to do this? Thanks.

Writing a Law?

nosophoros — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:15:15 -0800

I'm interested in getting a law passed. The details of said law are unimportant at this point. My question is where to start. How does one write legalese? Are there any sources (electronic or print) that would help or organizations that help grass roots movements?

Legislation outrage?

sbutler — Wed, 04 May 2005 22:29:34 -0800

LegalFilter: after reading an editorial I'm trying to decided if I should be outraged over parts of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 or not. The editorial makes a big deal about possible jail time. But if I'm reading recent copyright law correctly, it would seem that jail sentences were already possible. Is the outrage just editorial ignorance, or did something happen here that I missed.

Also, I'm not sure what the whole point of the bootlegging/pre-release section of this bill is about. Weren't these actions already covered under existing copyright law? I don't understand how you could argue that copying a pre-release isn't an infringement of the copyright.

Copyright Law in EU

Tlogmer — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 20:09:00 -0800

I"ve been reading Free Culture and fuming about copyright law. Something's been puzzling me: why is copyright law in the E.U. even more stringent than the U.S.? The E.U.'s generally more liberal and closer to me on almost every major issue; this is a glaring exception that I can't quite figure out.