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9 January 2010, Day 781 of the New World

This report is a continuation of my last Congressional report as Arizona’s Congressman, which can be found here. I now represent Michigan.

Some Congressmen received 10 Gold upon election as part of a glitch. I did not experience this. When I was elected, I was still on vacation and could not immediately take part in Congress. I returned before the conclusion of Congressional recess though.

This is the second term of the two-term appointment of Serendipitous as Speaker of the House and me as Deputy Speaker of the House. The first few days are the busiest for the highest levels of Congressional leadership, I think, because they involve committee assignments. As a reminder, my first term I was on the foreign relations advisory committee (FRAC), and my second term I was on the citizen affairs committee (CAC). I was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House my third term and was originally assigned to the Infrastructure Committee before the committees were reorganized into three super-committees. At that point, I just became part of the Domestic/Internal Committee (DIC). This term, I am again on DIC, but we have divided into sub-committees, and I am on the citizen affairs sub-committee.

I have produced a map of the 25th Congress by standing committee membership:


Click for full size

The Congressional leaders are:

Speaker of the House: Serendipitous (AAP – AL)
Deputy Speaker of the House: Rheinlander von Phalz (AAP – MI)

Congressional Whip: St Krems (Fed – ID)
Deputy Congressional Whip: Dr. Tango (Fed – SC)

Budget and Finance Committee Chairman: sydiot (Lib – NV)

Domestic/Internal Committee Chairman: Panther (AAP – T😵
Citizen Affairs Subcommittee Chairman: Emmanuel Cruise (AAP – AZ)
Government Oversight Subcommittee Chairman: Dodgercatcher (USWP – DC)
Infrastructure Subcommittee Chairman: sonofup1 (Green – Hunan)

International/External Committee Chairman: Devan Kronos (USWP – MT)
Foreign Relations Advisory Subcommittee Chairman: DanielCD (Lib – WI)
Military Subcommittee Chairwoman: Angelini (DR – GA)


27 December 2009, Day 768 of the New World

Peace Treaty with Japan
Proposed by: Dokomo, President of Japan
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 24 – 0 No
Rationale: The war between the United States and Japan was closed last term, but Japan had a mutual protection pact with China, and that triggered each time we land-swapped with a core Chinese region. We made peace because there was no reason not to, but the MPP would just get activated again later.

Alliance with Australia
Proposed by: Jewitt, President of the United States
Vote: Yes
Result: Rejected, Yes 55 – 0 No
Rationale: This appears to have been the first proposal of the 25th Congress that got widespread participation. Look at that: 55 votes (out of a total of 58 possible) and it was not because the proposal spanned two terms.

Alliance with Bosnia and Herzegovina
Proposed by: Emir Ribic, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 47 – 1 No
Rationale: Whatever the problem was with the last time Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed a mutual protection pact, which happened while I was on vacation, it had been resolved. Bosnia is an ally, although a significant number of Serbians have Bosnian citizenship.

Donate 2,720 IRR to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Dr. Tango (Fed – SC)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 49 – 1 No
Rationale: This was another proposal to get rid of some foreign currency from our national accounts to turn it into Gold.

28 December 2009, Day 769 of the New World

Alliance with Finland
Proposed by: Patekki, President of Finland
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 47 – 2 No
Rationale: Finland is an ally, and renewing our mutual protection pact with them is a monthly occurrence with no controversy attached.

Donate 67,881 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Cesog fillireb (AAP – Zhejaing)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 52 – 1 No
Rationale: This was a standard money transfer proposal to cover the budgeted expenses of the government.

29 December 2009, Day 770 of the New World

Tax Change: Iron
Proposed by: Cromstar (CvP – PA)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 50 – 2 No
Rationale: Similar to our conquest of Liaoning, we wanted to encourage owners of iron companies in Karnataka to sell off their companies to owners from the United States.

Peace Treaty with Romania
Proposed by: Adiemus, President of Romania
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 27 – 0 No
Rationale: Of course we were never really at war with Romania. China had a mutual protection pact with Romania, so that was activated against us when we attacked Chinese regions to land-swap with them. I was not crazy about the 1 Gold Romania demanded from us, though.

Buy Q5 Hospital for Karnataka
Proposed by: Jewitt, President of the United States
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 56 – 0 No
Rationale: Immediately after securing Karnataka, this proposal went up. We base our fortresses on resource availability primarily, and India was allowing us to hold onto the high-iron region of Karnataka after we kicked the Indonesians out for long enough to justify turning it into the third United States fortress.

Donate 170 Gold to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Rheinlander von Phalz (AAP – MI), the author of this Congressional report
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 52 – 1 No
Rationale: I find the large number of Gold donations we need to make slightly troubling. It means that the CJCS or the President is dumping Gold into the national accounts and then deciding that it is not needed. Congress got a request to make the next donation for Gold. I think the request later got modified to just 70 Gold, not the full 170, but that request never reached me. It was not difficult to add 100 Gold from somewhere else to the national account, though.

30 December 2009, Day 771 of the New World

Issue 200,000 USD for 1,000 Gold
Proposed by: Max McFarland 2 (USWP – OH)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 56 – 0 No
Rationale: After conquering a high-iron region (Karnataka), demand for the USD skyrocketed. To keep up with that demand, we immediately needed to create some more currency.

Buy Q5 Defense System for Karnataka
Proposed by: Jewitt, President of the United States
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 56 – 0 No
Rationale: This was the second part of the establishment of a fortress in Karnataka. The Q5 hospital proposal was made the day prior.

31 December 2009, Day 772 of the New World

Donate 99,999 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Devan Kronos (USWP – MT)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 56 – 0 No
Rationale: Donation of currency is necessary immediately after an issue money proposal passes, because the freshly-printed currency is issued directly to the national account.

1 January 2010, Day 773 of the New World

Donate 99,999 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: James Roosevelt (USWP – MN)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 49 – 0 No
Rationale: The rationale for this proposal is the same as for the one made by Devan Kronos (USWP – MT) a day earlier, which happened to be in another decade.

2 January 2010, Day 774 of the New World

Donate 99,999 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Greene12 (Fed – WY)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 50 – 0 No
Rationale: The rationale for this proposal is the same as for the one made by Devan Kronos (USWP – MT) two days earlier, which happened to be in another decade.

Peace Treaty with Romania
Proposed by: Adiemus, President of Romania
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 28 – 0 No
Rationale: The rationale for this proposal is the same as the one proposed by the President of Romania four days ago.

3 January 2010, Day 775 of the New World

Donate 55,000 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Lord Pariah (AAP – MS)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 55 – 0 No
Rationale: This was another standard currency donation to fund budget lines and keep our dollar stable.

4 January 2010, Day 776 of the New World

Alliance with India
Proposed by: Jewitt, President of the United States
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 54 – 0 No
Rationale: This alliance was supposed to be signed much earlier, around the time Karnataka was taken by the United States. We never were land-swapping with India; China land-swapped through India and we land-swapped through China. As there was no open war with India and no need for one, a mutual protection pact is a good idea. Should an enemy want to assault Karnataka, they would need to approach through India, and we could stop them with India and India’s other allies before they even border Karnataka.

Donate 22,619 IDR to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: DisDick (USWP – NC)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 53 – 0 No
Rationale: IDR seems to be a be a frequent foreign currency we have to clear out of our national accounts. This was likely one of the largest transfers of foreign currency I’ve ever seen.

5 January 2010, Day 777 of the New World

Alliance with Romania
Proposed by: andyr, President of Romania
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 52 – 0 No
Rationale: Our alliance with Romania was cancelled when we invaded a core Chinese region because Romania and China had a mutual protection pact. After ending the Romanian involvement in the USA-China war (which was a series of land swaps, not a real war), we could ally up with Romania. This was important for our ally because Hungary was making an incursion into their territory.

Donate 55,000 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Robert Loggia (UIP – Jiangxi)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 58 – 0 No
Rationale: The rationale for this proposal is the same as the propose made by Lord Pariah (AAP – MS) two days prior. The amount of currency transferred was even the same.

Alliance with Greece
Proposed by: Myrfalas, President of Greece
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 58 – 0 No
Rationale: This was a standard mutual protection pact renewal for an EDEN ally. It received 100% participation from 57 Congressman and the President.

6 January 2010, Day 778 of the New World

Alliance with Croatia
Proposed by: GP.1, President of Croatia
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 50 – 0 No
Rationale: This was another standard mutual protection pact renewal for an EDEN ally. Croatia has recently conquered the enemy nation of Slovenia, which participated in wars of aggression against Croatia with Hungary and Serbia.

Tax Change: Iron
Proposed by: sydiot (Lib – NV)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 52 – 2 No
Rationale: Just like after losing Liaoning, we reached a point where the income tax hike on iron should end. This time it was not because the motivation to keep taxes up was completely gone but because the objective should have been accomplished. We then needed United States iron companies in Karnataka to get producing to begin seeing the economic benefit of our own high-iron region.

Donate 24,000 USD to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Rekeri (Fed – NM)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 53 – 0 No
Rationale: This was yet another standard money transfer proposal.

New Citizen Message
Proposed by: Jewitt, President of the United States
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 55 – 0 No
Rationale: Ever since the breakup of PEACE, I have been working on a new citizen message (the old one referenced them as being our enemies). I refrained from suggesting a change right away, because the world situation was not very certain. It turned out to be smart, because later it became revealed that we could simply cross off “PEACE” and write “Phoenix” and it would apply. The new message represents some consolidation in the post-script links and updating the eUS background information, such as our membership in EDEN. It also is formatted to better fit the admin message it comes embedded in, and Jewitt added a line about disregarding the admin spam that precedes the new citizen message (which references the eRepublik chat rooms as a good method of communication).

7 January 2010, Day 779 of the New World

Donate 86 Gold to the Congressional Budget Office
Proposed by: Rekeri (Fed – NM)
Vote: Yes
Result: Accepted, Yes 53 – 0 No
Rationale: This was yet another standard money transfer proposal.