The Umpteenth Immigration Act

[Sir Samuhel Tecladeir]

I'm curious how this compares to other laws in force because this law does not repeal any of those laws. I'm concerned that we may be piling up laws instead of having a central formal legislation.

Would the Baron Hooligan please share with the floor the current laws as they exist and if this reforms the Immigration Law or repeals it?

[Hooligan]

The Senator for Vuode Rises to Answer His Esteemed Friend and Colleague.
My distinguished friend in the Cosâ has asked for clarification on the intent of the Umpteenth Immigration Reform Act. I am pleased to provide this for the honoured member. The UIR Act is intended to repeal and replace all existing immigration procedures. I call the attention of the chambers to the final clause of the act as submitted for consideration:

Clause 9. Any and all pre-existing statutes pertaining to the process of immigration into the Kingdom of Talossa, including but not limited to 34RZ2, its amending act 34RZ5, and 34RZ29, are hereby repealed and rendered null and void, their provisions wholly replaced by those of this act.

The Senator for Vuode Re-Seats his Rump.
Lord President Castiglhâ and S:r As-Yet Unnamed Speaker of the Cosâ, I yield the floor.

[Sir Samuhel Tecladeir]

In shame, I printed out the Clark instead of reading it online. As such, I have more points of clarification.

#1. Between Clauses 4, 5, and 8, the government has the responsibility to stop any immigration processes. Which means, if some bad dude tries to get all of his buddies in to take over the government and if they succeed, it's our fault.

#2. We only have 20 days to do this. Which means that every member of the Senäts and the Cosâ must take extreme activity in the immigration of new citizens.

Would you say, Baron Hooligan, that this is true?

# 3. Would you support amending this law down the road to include some terminology around activity? So, for example, an immigrant is granted provisional citizenship until their fiftieth message (when they cross from "New Member" to "Junior Member"). That may be a bit high. Only about 1/3 of our citizens have that high of a posting rate. Anyway, while in that provisional status, they cannot vote. I'm just thinking in terms of promoting participation and not just recruitment.

Finally, #4. In Clause 8, roughly halfway through, the proposal reads "...Royal Grant of Citizenship to the prospective immigrant whic is the subject..." By "whic", do you mean "which"?

I yield the remainder of my time to Baron Hooligan for his response.

[Hooligan]

The Senator for Vuode rises to address the chambers.

S:r Tyler's interest in the UIR Act is commendable and welcome. I will answer the questions posed by the honourable member in order.

In answer to his first question, that the Government takes responsibility to control the immigration process such that it does not overwhelm the nation or inordinately endanger the establishment, this is correct. The immigration process is free to proceed at whatever pace the Minister of Immigration and his (or, soon, her) deputies feel confortable. And the Government is free to halt immigration for any candidate for any reason. Such a person, if he or she wishes, would be free to petition any Talossan acquaintances in hopes for an act of citizenship to be mandated by a law of the Ziu.

To address the member's second question, the intention of the act is to provide only a minimum time for questioning the new immigrant. You are correct, however, that the intention is not only for every member of the Senäts and the Cosâ, but for every Talossan in wvery walk of life to question the prospective immigrant during the time that he or she is being "vetted" on the Kingdom's forums.

The third question posed by the honourable member concerned whether I would support amendments to the UIR Act down the road. My unflinching answer is yes. His suggestion for such an amendment, along the lines that a new citizenship may be something akin to "provisional" until certain acts have been performed, is directly in line with many of the comments made about this bill while it was in the Hopper. To such concepts, my answer was always, and continues to be, that these would (as the member indicates) be proper subjects for amending acts. One of the ideas I recall from the drafting of this resolution concerned a citizenship tenure requirement before voting, so that new citizens entering the Kingdom too near to an upcoming election would (just as dandelions who turn 14 years of age the day after an election) need to sit out an election before becoming eligible to vote.

The esteemed member's final question is answered with a resounding yes, and I would ask the Chancery to update the act as Clarked to reflect this question and its answer.

I yield the floor.

[King John]

mha said:

The esteemed member's final question is answered with a resounding yes, and I would ask the Chancery to update the act as Clarked to reflect this question and its answer.

My honourable friend raises an interesting question — can the text of Clarked bill be changed "on the fly", even for such an uncontroversial purpose as to fix a typo? It would seem to me impossible to do so — after all, some members have already voted on the Bill, and others might vote using an uncorrected copy. (And even to define what constitutes a real change in the meaning of a Bill, and what is merely correction of a typo, would be impossible!) No, I think the typo has to stand.

— John Woolley, UrN

[Eugene Oh]

On the other hand, would not the existence of the typographically erroneous word annul the word from the bill? Either a) the word would be ignored in all readings of the bill as it would not be a word in the official working language, or b) the entire bill would be deemed null and void because the presence of the unattested word disqualifies the entire bill from being classified as in the official working language of the Ziu.

I propose that typos be corrected 'on the fly', with all corrections first subject to the approval of a standing committee (for the sake of monitoring) and then, when it has been approved, open to suspension upon the legitimate petition of any member of the Ziu (because the corrected word induces a change in the nuance of the bill, etc.), whereupon all prior votes to the petition be annulled, the typo and its correction be opened to the Ziu for inspection and examination, and the amended bill resubmitted for ratification.

[Sir Samuhel Tecladeir]

MC. Tyler rises to address the speaker of the house:

I believe that since the SoS has the authority over the Clark, it is not the bill that is changing (in this case), but the Clark itself.

Regarding those who have already voted, I don't believe there is any law preventing them from changing their vote before the deadline. In this particular case, I believe there is enough latitude in the authority of the SoS, that, if in the SoS's opinion, a change does not change the content of the proposed Bill that the change may be made.

We could make the change to set the legal precedent and it someone didn't like it, they could take it to the Cort.

I yield the floor.

[Hooligan]

The primary sponsor of the now near-dangerously controversial proposal rises to address the Ziu.

Lord President, fellow Senators, members of the lower house. The Secretary of State has a sound point that the bill, exactly as Clarked, typo and all, should be voted without change. I guess. The proper course of action is to pass it into law, at which time its text becomes the responsibility of the Scribe of Abbavilla for cataloging in L'Annuntzia del Legeu.

The Scribe of Abbavilla informs the Ziu that he will remedy any minor misspellings he sees in any law coming to the Scribery. He has considered this to be his job ever since taking over, and has in fact remedied a not insignificant number of such errors in the statutory law currently catalogued in L'Annuntzia.

The Scribe of Abbavilla, custodian of the nation's law, is the proper officer to make this change. He serves at the pleasure of the King, and relies upon the expression of the Royal Trust for the honourable legislators to repose their own trust in him to do right by the law. Should any legislator disagree with any such minor modification made by the Scribe when incorporating any statute into the Canon, the legislator is of course free to file complaints with the Scribery or, failing to receive a satisfactory answer therefrom, complain by bringing action in the Uppermost Cort, or petition the Prime Minister to request that the Sovereign dismiss and replace the Scribe.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very gratified that the largest bone of contention in the Umpteenth Immigration Reform Act seems to be this truly astonishing and glaring typographical error. I hope this augurs well for the passage of the resolution.

I yield the floor.

The Senator for Vuode, Scribe of Abbavilla, seats himself.

[King John]

mha said:

Should any legislator disagree with any such minor modification made by the Scribe [...], the legislator is of course free [...] to petition the Prime Minister to request that the Sovereign replace the Scribe.

A quiet, gentlemanly snort is heard. A quiet voice mutters something indistinct, possibly "Oh yeah, you wish."

[Sir Samuhel Tecladeir]

The MC Del Octêt rises to address the President and members of the lower floor (since we have no speaker):

First of all, I find great irony that the leader of the RUMP party "seats himself".

Anyway, I commend the distinguished Baron on his task of proofreading laws coming into effect. However, may I suggest that he do it before he publish the Clark. Any mispellings or grammatical errors that may be material and change the content of the law can then be reviewed. In this way, every one knows what they are voting.

Also, should the Scribery request it, I will be happy to afford my services as a proofreader. I have an vesnïerál tendency in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. I have also worked for a newspaper (although for a much lower position than a proofreader) should that prove to be any better.

I yield the floor.

[Hooligan]

If it please the Ziu.

The Secretary of State's office (the Chancery) publishes the Clark. The Baron's only involvement with the publishing of the Clark in this case is that he, as the author of the UIR Act, submitted it for Clarking with the typographical error, which unfortunately was caught neither by its author or by the Secretary. I apologize for missing the error, and pledge to continue to do my utmost in proofreading bills that I submit in the future. But if I (or any author and the Secretary) don't catch errors before Clarking, the Scribe of Abbavilla assures me that he will remedy such oversights. The Scribe feels that by failing to do so, he might earn disfavor and lose his job.

Hmmmmmmm......!

I yield the floor.

[Sir Samuhel Tecladeir]

The MC Del Octêt thinketh to himselfeth:

Hm. Maybe I should tell him that if he makes that kind of talk public, the Royalty will be wiser and therefore never fire him. Maybe I should tell him.


Nah.