Use the following website to find a bill proposed in Congress THIS SESSION. You may search by keyword or by sponsor (House or Senate). Be sure to tell us the bill number (it will begin with S. or H.R. and then the number) so we can look at it if we want to. Tell us about the bill. What do you think about it? Does our country need that law? Why or why not?
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Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) and vetoed by the President of the United States. It is a crying shame that this law had to be passed. But, it is an even greater shame that this bill was vetoed by the president. Sometimes I wonder if he reads the bills or if he has really given it any thought. This bill would have encouraged stem cell research in the Unite States. Presently all stem (that is publically funded) cell research is being done overseas. This too is a shame as we are unequivocally the best at scientific research in the world. Scientists know that stem cells are probably the answer to a myriad if health concerns. My daughter was able to see again in her left eye because of stem cell research done in a private clinic. The scientists performing the research funded themselves and eventually practiced what they discovered helping to restore site to persons with damaged corneas. Further many of these scientists were or had been university professors and teachers at the university of Miami. Now they are working on their own making the big bucks. The problem her is that persons without Medicare or the ability to pay need not apply. These doctors to have to take and do not take anyone who cannot pay. The clinic we were seen at in Miami had people being treated from all over the globe. Why dose our President and the right wing republicans believe that God could not be for something that does so much good. If the president had signed this into law American scientists may have already found a cure for Alzheimer’s, some forms of cancer and some forms of blindness. Who knows what the possibilities are?
S.347 proposed by George Voinovich, R-Ohio. The Minimum Wage Act of 2007. This bill is intended to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 over the course of two years. On the surface, this is a necessary law. Those of us who have tried to raise a family, or even live on our own, know how difficult it is at the current minimum wage. On the down side, the bill has additional legislation included such as work credits for targeted workers and elimination of certain due process elements for those employers with delinquent employment tax liabilities. Of course, all we hear about is the increase in the minimum wage. Currently, the bill is in the Committee of Finance. When I checked out related bills in the House, I was overwhelmed. Far too many proposed amendments to the House versions for me to make any real sense of them. This is another example how the wheels of our government move slowly. But back to the primary intent of the bill. I believe we do need a higher federal minimum wage in America. Its no secret that prices are not going to go down, so wages need to come up to provide some decent standard of living. I see a couple of benefits to a higher minimum wage. With a higher minimum wage, some jobs may be more attractive to some citizens currently not employed. With, hopefully, more people employed, our welfare system may see a bit of relief. In addition, increased wages will realize an increase in potential tax revenues at all levels. I say potential because I believe that the tax structure will probably be revised to allow for the higher minimum but workers who may seek employment at the bottom of the ladder just might begin to climb that ladder toward higher paying position resulting in the "potential" higher tax collections. Arguments against a higher minimum wage are, obviously, cost to the employer and higher cost of goods and services. Whether the arguments for or against a higher federal minimum wage come to fruition will take time. In Ohio, we have already instituted a $7.25 minimum wage. The law hasn't been in effect too long, but I have noticed a couple of things that have happened in the short term. First, service industries like restaurants have slowed their hiring practices to a small extent. I have a friend who manages a restaurant within a chain, and their corporate mandates have demanded more duties for fewer employees. Unfortunately for him and other managers in the store, a lot of that extra duty transfers to the managers. I have seen an increase in spending. As weird as it may seem, I like to watch spending patterns in our local stores. It gives me an idea of how our community is faring and sales look to be on the upswing. I haven't noticed any real rise in prices of the usual consumer goods that I purchase save for the price of gasoline. However, these observations are in the short term. Whether the minimum wage increase will work in the desired ways here in Ohio is yet to be seen in the long term. So far, so good. I think it can work at the federal level if Congress can stop all the amendments and put it into action.
A bill proposed in Congress this session by Hillary Rodham Clinton is S.757. This bill was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. This bill proposed by Mrs. Clinton aims to create a national expectation for mathematics and science education from kindergarten through grade 12. I really like this bill and I agree that it should be passed. Our country desperately needs this law. Just like the bill states, our country is falling behind other countries when it comes to our education. The United States produces fewer graduates in math and science and has lower test results in math and science than international countries, such as China and Japan. This bill proposes better curriculums, identifying effective teaching material, develop a national expectation for mathematics and science education, and developing a sample of assessment questions each teacher would have to ask the students throughout the school year. I stand by this bill and believe that our education system is starting to slip. Funding for schools are starting to fail and that effects the children. We need to be able to provide the best education for everyone in the best country in the world. Other countries are surpassing us and if the United States does not get on the ball and do something to help our future, then we might be left in the dust. Technology is getting better everyday and so are the minds of other countries. There will not be as many jobs available for Americans if they do not get the highest education possible because international people will grab the job first because they are the most qualified and determined to work.
In response to ditmerde, I must say that I agree with you wholeheartedly. Education is changing on a daily basis and the United States does not seem to be hanging stride for stride in the new developments that other countries seem to be doing. I volunteer each year at the Kentucky Governor’s Cup Competition (state academic competition) in Louisville and see the winners in each competition and it becomes more shocking to me each year. Surmised by the participant’s names on the awards program, 6 of the top 10 place finishers on the high school math level seem to have been in agreement with ditmerde’s statement regarding the United States falling behind China and Japan. I do understand that these students that were in the top 10 are American citizens; however their ethnicity background is obviously something different. I would also assume that the parental guidance given to these students when it comes to dedication, study habits as well as a given talent, the background of the parents plays a significant role. I would like to think that our schools in the United States can keep up with schools in other countries, but I do feel as though a bill specifically targeted to math and science must be instituted in order for this to take place. The improvement of the curriculum that is instituted for our school systems, the teaching materials that are used and the funding that is received by our schools seem to definitely be on a downslide and those in Congress have to step up and take control and give our children a desire, a passion and an enjoyable way for learning math and science in order to have an interest in learning these two subjects and to compete in open job opportunities.
In the news, has been about our food safety and the recent recall of pet food. In the current Congress, there are several bills proposed, that seek to protect the U.S. food supply. The Safe Food Act of 2007 (Senate bill S.654 and related House bill HR.1148), seeks to establish “the Food Safety Administration to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.” Both bills introduced Feb 15 and Feb 16, 2007 respectively, and referred committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry in the Senate and the committees on Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture in the House. These bills seek to establish a new agency that will oversee all food safety from farm to our homes and from foreign food processors to our homes. These bills to me appear to create yet another agency with the bureaucracy built into it that will not really correct the existing problems, but only give the appearance that the government is serious about insuring that our food supply is safe. If the existing laws and agencies in charge of our food supply (FDA and USDA, as an example), do their jobs, are not restricted by partisan politics, and grant them the authority to inspect more food shipments from foreign countries, among other things, we should have a safer food supply. We do not need this new law creating yet another agency (Food Safety Administration), and should fund the existing agencies to their fullest and add new laws that give them clear-cut goals to ensure the safety of food for our pets and ourselves. Besides these bills, Congress has also proposed S.1274 and HR.2108 - Human and Pet Food Safety Act of 2007. These bills amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of food for humans and pets. I think these bills are better fit to the situation and do not add more bureaucracy in a new agency that S.654 and HR.1148 would propose.
H.R.256.IH
For those that read comments, I am sure you know my contentment for the idea that students on college campuses should carry guns. As I said before, I am not anti-gun, I am anti-stupidity. Sure, we can say that guns don’t kill people, people do, yet those same guns in the hand of a child can kill too. No one would say the child was a killer. Imagine it, two 5 or 6 year olds playing while mommy is cooking dinner. One of them finds a toy under mommy and daddy’s bed. Unfortunately, it was not a toy, but a gun and then there is only one child. First of all, this kind of reckless behavior of adults goes on all of the time. Gunholders need to take more precaution when storing their guns. In the case of college students carrying guns, how many college students do we really believe are responsible enough to own and carry a gun around so many other drunken college students? I just can not get behind this! This bill, titled “Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act of 2007” aims to enforce stricter punishments for those reckless adults and to help provide gun safety programs. One of the sections would call for a more strict punishment for those persons giving possession of a handgun to someone under the age of 21. Since the issue of safe storage is an issue as in the case that I described, this bill would make it unlawful for someone “selling, transferring, or delivering” a gun to someone without a secure storage or safety device. This would be like a lock box or a trigger lock. Again, addressing the recklessness of adults, this bill calls for stricter punishments to adults in which they were responsible for the access to a firearm in which resulted in the death or injury of a child. Finally, and most importantly, this bill would call for grants to local governments for gun safety classes and have each school district have a firearms safety program for children from kindergarten through their senior year in high school. I think this would be a huge step in preventing accidental shooting deaths in children and the safety education is definitely needed. America definitely needs this!
110th Congress 1st Session H.R. 1246
This bill is known as the ‘Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2007’, with a purpose to institute in the Armed Forces a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation. This bill would replace the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy that is currently in our Armed Forces today. With this bill’s passing and implementation to the Department of Defense’s Equal Opportunity Policy, young men and women who would love to serve the United States in the Armed Forces would no longer be discriminated against due to their sexual orientation. As defined in the bill, the term “sexual orientation” means heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality whether or not the orientation of a person is real or perceived. If this bill were to go into effect, any one person who is or thought to be gay, straight or bisexual cannot be discriminated against if they are interested in joining the Armed Forces or if they are already enrolled in the Armed Forces. Family members, as well as the enrolled individual, that might be affected by this bill and be affected by discriminating acts by others would benefit from advocacy programs made available to them by the Department of Defense’s military regulations governing body.
I support this bill and find that it is definitely one that should be implemented. In the direction that our country is taking on the war issue, why would we not want willing and able bodies to enroll? Having an able body at this point in the war who wants to go fight for our country should not be stopped due to their sexual orientation. What in the world does someone’s sexual preference behind closed doors have to do with fighting for our rights and for our country? I find it very difficult to even see how and why there are people that honestly feel so strongly against having gays in the military. I have sat and thought about what might be the problem and can’t even really come up with a legit reason that could be posed in order to not allow this bill to pass. Surely there are not people out there that feel as though they cannot share a bunker due to one the guys or girls being gay. Just because they are gay does not mean they are looking at you, interested in you, paying attention to you in bathroom situations, etc. With them being in that bunker with you should only stand for one thing and that would be the fact that they are there for the same reason you are and that is fighting for our country. The way that I see this whole issue is like this…if a person who is an American citizen wants to go fight for my country, I say let he or she do it and thank you for being willing. On the other hand, for those people that are out there who are against it, here is to you….if you are so against gays in the military, more than likely you are against homosexuality all the way around so, why in the world would you not want the “out of the norm” gays to be kept from enrolling in the military? I would think you would want to put them on the front lines and let them be the ones fighting for you instead of the straight men and women that you consider to be the “normal, moral, good, ethical” citizens of the United States.
S.CON.RES.36
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That Congress--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of National Teen Driver Safety Week; and
(2) encourages the people of the United States to observe the week with appropriate activities that promote the practice of safe driving among the Nation's licensed teenage drivers.
I think this is extremely important for the well being of our nation. Not only do I think it’s important for teenagers to become safer drivers but everyone in the United States. The United States has one of the easiest driving tests in the western part of the world. With all the new electronics in America it’s hard for anyone to concentrate on the road while being distracted by a phone, GPS, IPOD, and so on. Within the text of the proposed bill it discusses statistics of teenage fatalities behind the wheel of an automobile. It says 7,500 people between the ages of 15 and 20 were in a fatal accident in 2005. The text also says two thirds of teenage deaths in an automobile were not wearing a seatbelt. This has everything to do with the knowledge the teenager has about driving. I understand that everyone knows your supposed to wear a seatbelt but if the new drivers knew two third of the deaths result from teenagers not wearing seatbelts that might listen more often. I think it’s crucial for the United States to crack down on the importance of National Teen Driver Safety Week. If this generation learns then they will have their children learn and so on. For someone so young to be in charge of something so dangerous it’s vital they understand what they should and should not do.
All I have to say is right on to Emily’s comment about gun safety classes being taught. I absolutely believe that knowledge is power and is extremely important when people know how to use a gun properly. And I believe that such knowledge would also help to cut down accidental shootings and injuries. I believe that gun ownership is a huge responsibility and should be treated as such. Yes it is one of our constitutional rights but it needs to be respected and not abused. When one person abuses such a grand privileged it endangers it for the rest of us and in this case such an abuse endangers others very lives. I believe that gun ownership allows for protection and entertainment (hunting) but is not a responsibility that should be placed in the hands of a child and adults should be held responsible for where and how their guns are stored. As for college students owning guns I sure as heck am getting mine as soon as I move in to my new apartment this fall. I figure that I am a 21 year old girl living by myself I could either get a big dog or a gun. In the end a gun is cheaper more reliable and more effective.
H.R. 2: Title I: Fair Minimum Wage - Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 - (Sec. 101) Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the federal minimum wage to: (1) $5.85 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after enactment of this Act; (2) $6.55 an hour, beginning 12 months after that 60th day; and (3) $7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day.
Obviously this is a bill purposing to raise the minimum wage over a set period of time. As for what I think about the bill I believe it to be a bad idea and an unnecessary law. To the high school student flipping burgers down the road it might seem a nice raise that is it they are one of the lucky ones who keep their job. See, that is the problem with raising the minimum wage. It demands that employers pay their employees more but dose not guarantee that they make more money so that they can pay them more without going in the hole. For this reason employers must shrink their staff in order to meet government regulations. This hurts more people then leaving the wage alone. First, there are fewer people working and unemployment rises. Second, those fewer people have to work harder because they are now expected to do the same job before the staff was cut. third Prices have to go up to counter the wage increases. Supply of items can also go down because not enough workers and not enough money to pay those needed so not as many products can be put out. So in the end no one wins. Any good that is done is countered by negative effects. And any extra money earned by those privilege few is lost by a rise in prices. So I am strongly in oppositions to such a bill becoming law and believe that is detriment to our nation and economy. A free market society works best! And for it to work best the government needs to say out of determining wages
In response to Ditmerde and Erica W response to the same, I also believe that that the bill proposed for a national expectation for mathematics and science education should be passed into law. My wife works as a tutor for Japanese students and the homework that she goes over with her students in mathematics and sciences is a supplement of the courses the students are taught in the American schools, in that they are being taught these course so that the students meet the course grade levels back in Japan. The educational level for these subjects in Japan, and many countries in Europe, are far ahead of those here in America. From listening to my wife, typical sixth-grade students in Japan, are taught mathematics that are at a 9th grade level algebra here in the US. It is sad that people believe that the US should lead the world in education, however, the truth is that many of these people want to improve the school system. It takes more than improving the school system, it also takes parents who are involved in their child’s education. If more American’s would lead in their child’s education, by bringing in tutors, or sending their child to a study group, or even sitting down every night and going over their child’s homework, it is a start in the right direction.
H.R.750 Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2007 (Introduced in House. This act is still on the floor and its being looked at no desicions made yet. It is to allow imigrants who have family members over here yet not a citizen to be alowed to have visas and the opppurtunity to come over. Also for imigrants that want a visa and to come and stay with a certain family like exchange students. They proposed a board to be set a sie for these kinds of cicumstances and people. The board would consist of several people as well as certin functions The Secretary of State shall establish within the Department of State a Board of Family-based Visa Appeals. The Board shall be composed of 5 members who shall be appointed by the Secretary. Not more than 2 members of the Board may be consular officers. The Secretary shall designate a member who shall be chairperson of the Board.
I personaly who have allot of illegal people in the family are of course for this bill. My brother in laws neice lives in mexico and is dying for the oppurtunity to come to an Amercian school and her grades are excellent maybe with this board people like her will get that oppurtunity. Although I think there should be strick guidelines because then you will have everyone doing it.Our country needs this law as well as that certain group to help make the choice immigrants are taking over and soon will be everwhere and the oppurtunity for the ones eho want to come over the right way should be made.
Proposed by the House of Representative on April 17, 2007.
H. R. 1895: To improve the tracking of stolen firearms and firearms used in a crime, to allow more frequent inspections of gun dealers to ensure compliance with Federal gun law, to enhance the penalties for gun trafficking, and for other purposes.
This act is not of any real significance, but it was interesting to me. This act requires that all firearms are entered into the Firearms Trace System database maintained by the National Trace Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. If a weapon is stolen then it can be tracked this way. I am not sure what this section has to do with gun trafficking because the only thing this bill said about it was dropping some words and adding a couple of words into the already existing section. I think that this bill is a good one. I think that it is necessary in our country. It helps to retrieve stolen firearms and can be used to solve crimes when a weapon is found. The firearm can be quickly identified through the Firearms Trace system. I do not think that this is one of the main bills that should be considered, but I do think that it would be effective in our country.
in response to ashleymason:
I like what you have to say about the rise in minimum wage. I agree with your point of view. I like the part when you talk about extra money being lost because of the raise in prices.
Bill Wren
Surely you dont truly believe that any president would blindly veto a bill without "reading it" or "giving it any thought." I am honestly very happy for your daughter and glad that she was able to recieve benficial treatment, however, many americans don't support stem cell research. You present your response in such a way that our entire nation supports stem cell research and our stubborn, controlling president veto's anything he doesnt care for. Obviously this isnt the way it works.
S.95, proposed by John Kerry D-MA. The Kids Come First Act of 2007 is a bill to amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act, ensuring that every uninsured child in the U.S. has health insurance coverage. I feel that this is a law/amendment that is very important for our country. Regardless of anyones feelings about welfare, or about free health care for all, we should all be able to understand this. A child is a dependent being. They cant make adult decisions for themselves such as obtaining health care. It is terrible to see innocent children suffering due to the irresponsibility of their parents. Children should be granted this free health care if their parents refuse or are unable to provide it. I'm a huge advocate of person responsibility and independence from excessive governmental control, but children should never have to worry about recieving health care, regardless their social or economic status. To deny a child this would be unethical, and un-American.
I chose bill H.R.3036, No Child Left Inside 2007. This bill basically provides environmental education grants to schools in order to train teachers. The bills states that environmental literacy will enhance students’ problem-solving skills, create responsible citizens, and produce graduates who can face the challenges of life in the 21st century. The bills also say that children need time out of the classroom in order to improve their lives and prevent “nature deficit disorder” (??????). The bill requires states to ensure that their graduates are environmentally literate by creating a plan. This plan will be reviewed every five years.
I think that this bill moves in the right direction towards environmental literacy. Children should be educated in ways to help preserve their environment, recycle, and other precautions. The first step towards conservation is awareness. I do think that we need a law like this, but this one takes it a little too far. Nature deficit disorder? What is that? Anyway, this bill requires states to set standards for environmental literacy, but I think that maybe there should be a federal-government regulated curriculum. That way, every student would learn the same thing.
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