A Mandatory Service Exploratory Commission?

Mar 24, 2009 at 11:19 PM

By Bonnie Kristian

Yesterday the House passed H.R. 1388, the charmingly titled Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (GIVE - nice to know our congressmen are just that clever, isn't it?). It has been sent on to the Senate, where it will likely pass and be signed into law by early April. As it stands now, the bill does not require mandatory service for young people. However, it is far from innocuous. An amendment to Section 125 disallows participants from a number of activities, including but not at all limited to

(1) Attempting to influence legislation. (2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes. (3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing... (7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.

Quite a few critics, including, of course, Alex Jones and several other sites -- here and here for example -- have cited a Section 6104 of the bill as requiring

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.”

However, after using Firefox to search the full text of the bill for various phrases from this quote, I have failed to find any trace of it, let alone a Section 6104. In fact, the bill only goes up to Section 5102. Take a look at the full text yourself -- am I missing the requirement for this commission? Is it really happening already, or is that still just in the dreams of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel?

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If it prohibits boycotts, then no American should be allowed to participate in the program because America has multiple sanctions or boycotts on buying goods from various countries. Also Americans have a freedom of religion yet participants of this new "volunteer" group aren't allowed to practice. Just another example of our Bill of Rights being belittled. In fact, most of the regulations are against participants Bill of Rights which I understand they must sign away if they volunteer. What a nightmare!

Submitted by Alayna (not verified) on March 25, 2009.

Ahh....yeah I was looking at the final version that got sent to the Senate, not the earlier versions. You're right, of course, that it will probably come back later...at least it has at least technically been staved off for the moment, I guess.

Submitted by Bonnie Kristian on March 25, 2009.

The sad thing is that I laughed at it thinking it was some obscure bill that never made it out of committee.... Then I saw "got sent to the Senate" and I got horrified.

Submitted by Preston (not verified) on March 25, 2009.

(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization. Does this section mean I don't have to participate because I am religious?

Submitted by Trevor (not verified) on March 25, 2009.

I was just reading over the text of the bill again today and it looks like Sec. 125 was struck out. Can anyone confirm this?

Submitted by Charles (not verified) on March 27, 2009.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c111QQHUg9:e324376: There ya go. Section 6104. Check out (6). This version of the Bill did not pass the House though. Even though it was removed, does not mean that the funds won't go towards such a commission. The wording was to research whether service should be mandatory, meaning it will likely be included in a future bill.

Submitted by Joslin Kagle (not verified) on March 25, 2009.

Sorry, they only retain searches for a limited amount of time. You can look it up here, and just look at the earliest version of the bill. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:h1388:

Submitted by Joslin Kagle (not verified) on March 25, 2009.

I think I was wrong about this being struck out. I apologize for the confusion.

Submitted by Charles (not verified) on March 27, 2009.

Lady's and Gentlemen, get your guns, and arm yourself... Its coming. Soon we will all be enslaved to do the bidding of our masters in order to have bread and water for the night. Oh God bless America.

Submitted by Jeff (not verified) on April 3, 2009.