HR1388, S3577, S277 Updated - DO NOT STOP CALLING!

There are reports floating around the Internet that the GIVE ACT (HR1388)/National Service Reauthorization Act (S3577)/Serve America Act (S277) has been passed by the Senate in a 74-14 vote according to Kate Phillips of The Obama NY Times.

S277 - Serve America Act HAS NOT BEEN VOTED ON YET.

The House passed HR1388 last week, S3577 was voted cloture [where they stop debate and avoid a filibuster] on the 19th, and now has been bundled into S277 and is expected to be voted on “later this week”.

It almost seems like they want to confuse you, huh?

The NY Times wants you to believe that this is a done deal and everything is over. But really the article said, “…the Senate tonight voted 74 to 14 on a procedural move“…. The cloture motion to stop debate and filibustering.

These are BAD BILLS

HR 1388 specifically targets Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). From school-based service learning programs to focusing on severely economically depressed communities, the GIVE act sounds good until you get to part about the mandatory service requirement for youth. How can volunteerism be mandatory?

Section 6104 of The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act requires that a commission be established to investigate,

“Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.”

Of course I imagine armies of youth planting trees and working on community service projects; however, I can’t get on board with the involuntary servitude. It’s even scarier when you consider Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel coauthored The Plan: Big Ideas for America that calls for compulsory service for Americans ages 18 to 25:

Here’s how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They’ll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we’re hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities’ most pressing needs.

Doesn't sound like much more than a long summer camp, until you hear what the architect really wants.