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Bill: National Service Reform Act 4176
Details
Submitted by[?]: Patriotic Party of Baltusia
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: May 4178
Description[?]:
| Members of Congress, Given our strong defensive situation based on prudent policies, investment and alliances we believe we are now in a position to remove the need for national service in all its forms for school leavers. If this passes, money from the budget allocated to running the service will now be used as part of a recruitment drive to get more people to enlist voluntarily. We suggest this is given a trial run for several years, after which we can review the policy based on its success and year-on-year voluntary recruitment numbers. William F. Mace Defence Secretary |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change National service.
Old value:: All adults upon completion of schooling can be required in times of war to serve a term in the military.
Current: All adults upon completion of schooling must serve a term of civilian national service.
Proposed: There shall be no mandatory military or civilian national service.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 13:37:08, March 06, 2017 CET | From | Patriotic Party of Baltusia | To | Debating the National Service Reform Act 4176 |
| Message | I will leave this in debate for several months to see if any party has any comments or amendments. William F. Mace Defence Secretary |
| Date | 18:04:48, March 06, 2017 CET | From | Baltusian Democratic Green Party (BDGP) | To | Debating the National Service Reform Act 4176 |
| Message | Whilst I see the Defence Secretary's best intentions, may I first ask him what this proposal will actually change or do for the military? Currently, the legislation as it stands says 'All adults upon completion of schooling can be required in times of war to serve a term in the military'. From what I understand, Baltusia isn't 'formally' at war, because there has been no announcement or vote on this issue in Congress (recently at least). As a result, the provisions set out in law haven't been met, meaning there currently is no national service. So the proposal to change the law to say that 'There shall be no mandatory military or civilian national service' seems to me to be completely pointless as it won't change a thing, but will only restrict our ability to mobilise the military in times of urgent national need - a war. I ask the Defence Secretary to swiftly respond to this question. Sophia Guillory, Minority Leader of the House |
| Date | 11:13:32, March 07, 2017 CET | From | Patriotic Party of Baltusia | To | Debating the National Service Reform Act 4176 |
| Message | Ma'am, I will respond to your question. We are trying to create an environment where people who are part of our armed forces want to be serving. Many times over the years parties have said to me national service or conscription does not work because you are forcing people to do something they don't want to do. So I want to strip this back and show people in Baltusia than no one who leaves school is forced to be part of the military while at the same time creating a recruitment strategy that positively encourages people to want to join the army and forge a career. I agree that conscription is an effective tool during long and protracted war but we are not at war and during long periods of peace time when we have a professional standing army and allies surrounding us I see no reason to have this law in place too. I also believe the current conscription law is too nebulous. If, and when, we need conscription we could be more specific - for example, setting age limits i.e. conscription for 18 to 40 year olds; exempting people in vital occupations etc. Having said that let us hope our strong military, coupled with our international successes, keep war a long way from our door. Thank you William F Mace Defence Secretary. |
| Date | 11:10:27, March 09, 2017 CET | From | Patriotic Party of Baltusia | To | Debating the National Service Reform Act 4176 |
| Message | Members of Congress, I will now move this to a vote. If the bill passes it will rid this nation of "the draft" which many parties find undesirable as well as any form of national service after leaving school. I am confident our standing professional army (around 300,000 personnel) means we do not need any further conscription law in place now and I believe this would be a good unifying move to make in terms of bringing parties together. In the future, if war breaks out, and it is deemed necessary, the government could reinstate conscription laws but with certain caveats dependent on the situation i.e conscript only 18 to 30 year olds in the first place, then 18 to 40 year olds if the war drags on. We could also exempt people in jobs key to the war effort. Thank you William F. Mace |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 654 | ||||||
| no | Total Seats: 0 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 46 |
| Random fact: Discuss flag designs at the Flag Designs thread: http://forum.particracy.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37 |
| Random quote: "I'll see you in the Palace in Kivonia once we win this war... and I'm ecstatic to be the one to execute you. Sleep well." - Queen Annalise, former Telamonese monarch |