Senate Rejects Two Bills, Passes One in Final Full Session

The Senate met in full on January 14th. Here are the bills they discussed, ranging from women’s rights to prison sentences and college tuition:

The Women’s Rights Act (WRA) proposed that women be granted the right to get an abortion, and for it to be free of charge. The bill also stated that an abortion may only be performed before 28 weeks or in other “authorized circumstances”.

Additionally, this bill would make contraceptives more accessible with author Vermont Junior saying, “[The WRA] establishes a committee which makes contraceptives accessible in all hospitals and in universities.”

Republicans and Democrats went back and forth on if this bill was ethical or not. In an interview with Tom Tillis, the senior representative from North Carolina, he shared his thoughts on the WRA: “it goes against my religious beliefs to fund an abortion. How am I as a Christian man gonna pay for abortion? That's ridiculous. I also just think, how are we going to turn from one nation under God in our pledge of allegiance to one nation under feminism? This is a scary world we'reliving in.”

The bill failed in a 19 to 20 vote with only democrats voting in favor of this bill.

The Senate also rejected the Rehabilitation, Abolish Minimum Sentences, and Private Prisons (R.A.P) Act authored by SC-Sr, CT-Sr, NJ-Jr, and NC-Sr. The act’s name explains itself, outlined developing rehabilitation plans, eliminating minimum sentencing, and creating motives to improve private prisons.

The bill consisted of 4 sections, each discussing different aspects of the R.A.P acronym. Section 2 depicts that treatment plans will be given to incarcerated people with mental health disorders as well as those struggling with substance abuses. The section also aimed to implement sentencing alternatives such as community service and probation among others.

Section 3 simply stated that minimum sentencing will be abolished and instead “judges shall determine sentencing”.

Section 4 discussed the use of private prisons, who will “have performance-based contracts on reports forwarded to the Department of Justice”. Private prisons will be monitored to ensure they maintain government standards of living, aiming to incentivise private prisons to create a structured, effective rehabilitation process.

Many amendments were proposed, including one to strike Section 3 of the bill, believing that minimum sentencing protects society from the previously incarcerated.

Author of the R.A.P Act and North Carolina senior representative Thom Tillis described the purpose of abolishing minimum sentencing, seeing it as “a necessary step to make sure that people all got their fair sentences and were able to actually integrate back into society.”

The amendment ultimately failed, yet amendments continued to be proposed.

One senator from Kansas did not believe that states should be benefitting for the success of private prisons, and an amendment was proposed first to edit the section and later cut it out completely. Both also failed, and no ultimate agreement on the contents of the bill could be made.

No solution has been made to the country’s mass incarceration debate, as the R.A.P Act failed after merely thirty minutes of debate, with an opposing vote of 21 to 16.

The Senate also considered the Counseling Access For Everyone Act, also known as the CAFE Act, to help low income students learn more about their academic future through a government website. The Department of Education will be maintaining said website and keeping up with every bit of information that can be useful to their students such as college counseling, essay advice, qualification for enrollment, etc.

There was quite a debate between the delegates due to the fact that there are currently multiple existing websites that do the exact same thing; for example, the College Board website, which is designed precisely for students who are looking for information about how to apply and which of these universities and colleges is the one for them. This is a formidable website that the people know and trust, which is why various delegates were against the CAFE Act, since according to them it would be essentially useless and a waste of time and money.

On the other hand, those who favor this Act explained how these other websites cost money while theirs would be completely free for those who can't afford paying for the other websites available, and they wouldn't even have to create an account.

Tom Tillis has strong opinions on this act, according to him, “I think the problem I’ve run into with it is it just promotes this idea that everyone needs to go to university to get out of low income life and everyone need to just have one path and that's like going to a big college when we have the community college system that is suitable for so many people and allowing pushing anyone to get a degree in my mind is not the right option”.

As a result, the delegates voted on an amendment to counsel on taking other paths besides college for those who desire to so that students don't feel pressured to go to college or think they won't have a good future if they don't.

The bill passed 26 to 10-5.

This article was written by Militza Méndez, Kate Sato, and Bryce Jenkins.