East Los Angeles District Qualifier

for the 2022 National Tournament

Student Congress Docket

A Bill to Return Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux

        BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED:

SECTION 1.   Mount Rushmore National Monument, Jewel Cave National Monument, and Black Hills.   National Forest are hereby returned to the Lakota Sioux, the ownership and administration of these areas to be jointly determined by the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Lower Brule, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock Reservations on behalf of the Lakota Sioux people.

SECTION 2.  A fund of $100 million shall be made available to the reservations for the purpose of remediating the returned lands, including, should tribal administration so desire, the demolition of the four presidential sculptures and surrounding complex at Mount Rushmore and restoration of that landmark to the mountain the Lakota Sioux  call Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe (The Six Grandfathers).

SECTION 3.  Funding for this legislation shall be raised from a one-time annual tax increase of 1% on the revenues of the oil, coal, and natural gas industries. Additional funds procured from this tax shall be transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to be used as that agency sees fit.

SECTION 4.  This legislation shall be overseen by the BIA. The National Park Service (NPS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shall be available to support the BIA upon request.

SECTION 5.   This legislation shall take effect on January 1, 2023.

SECTION 6.  All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

A Bill to Prohibit Disposal of Returned Products

BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED:

SECTION 1.   No retailer may dispose of a non-defective, non-damaged, non-perishable returned product. Retailers must further make every effort to repair a defective or damaged returned product or, if repair is not possible, to recycle or reuse whatever parts of it may be salvageable.

SECTION 2.  Disposal shall be defined as destruction, abandonment, or storage without intention of preservation or reuse, or as relegation to a waste disposal facility, such as a landfill, for these same purposes. A returned product shall be defined as a product which a customer has purchased or otherwise acquired from a retailer but has then for any reason brought or sent back to the retailer to exchange for a refund in any form, including an exchange or replacement.

SECTION 3.  Any retailer found to be in violation of this legislation shall be fined fifty times the retail price of each product found to have been improperly disposed of and ten times the retail price of any defective or damaged product for which repair or reuse of parts was not attempted.

SECTION 4.   This legislation shall be overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

SECTION 5.   This legislation shall take effect on January 1, 2023.

SECTION 6.  All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

A       Bill to Protect the US Dollar from the Threat of Cryptocurrency

BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED:

SECTION 1.  No domestic financial transaction at any level of government, including the payment of a mayoral salary, may be conducted in a currency other than the United States dollar.

SECTION 2.   The request by a sitting politician to be paid in a currency other than the United States dollar shall be viewed as a treasonous act and grounds for impeachment.

SECTION 3.   This legislation shall be overseen by the Department of the Treasury.

SECTION 4.   This legislation shall take effect immediately upon passage.

SECTION 5.  All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.

A Resolution to Amend Section 3 of the 14^th  Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States does not take into consideration electors who may be considered fraudulent; Congressional committees established for the purpose of investigating rebellions and insurrections; and cases of multiple impeachments; therefore be it

RESOLVED,  By the Congress here assembled, that the following is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress:

ARTICLE—

SECTION 1.  Include the following language from Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to include the following items in bold and remove the struck sentence: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. Electors who fail to cooperate with federal investigators and Congressional committees established for determining whether an insurrection, rebellion, or failure to defend the Constitution of the United States has taken place, will be ineligible to hold any elected office in the future. In addition, any elector who has held an office and been impeached two or more times is ineligible for holding that same office again.

SECTION 2.  The Congress shall have power to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation.

A Bill to Reduce Department of Defense Infringement on the First Amendment

BE IT ENACTED BY THE CONGRESS HERE ASSEMBLED:

SECTION 1.  The Department of Defense (DoD) may no longer require filmmakers to adjust their productions as a requirement of DoD cooperation.

SECTION 2.   The DoD must make a good faith effort to cooperate with any U.S.-based film production that seeks DoD support so long as DoD support is relevant to the production in question, regardless of the way in which said production depicts the DoD or any other aspect of the U.S. government. In particular, the DoD must provide support to any film production based on a true story, regardless how flattering that story may or may not be with regard to the DoD or the U.S. government.

SECTION 3.   The DoD may charge filmmakers reasonable fees to cover the expenses associated with DoD cooperation, though they may not levy these fees unfairly based on perceived bias for or against the DoD or the U.S. government.

SECTION 4.  Any DoD civilian employee found to be violating the terms of this legislation shall be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. The violation of this legislation by a service member shall constitute a new crime under the Punitive Articles section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and members accused of violating it shall be subject to court martial.

SECTION 5.  This legislation shall be overseen by the Library of Congress, which shall receive an additional $1 million per year to pay for costs associated with this oversight. This funding will be transferred from the DoD budget.

SECTION 6.   This legislation shall take effect immediately upon passage.

SECTION 7.  All laws in conflict with this legislation are hereby declared null and void.