Okay, so the Congress has passed the G.I.V.E. act (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education), HR 1388 and passed it on to the Senate. Now the Senate has renamed it the "Serve America Act, S 277, and they have passed it.
There are still some good guys in the Senate...Senator David Vitter [R-LA] offered an amendment to the bill which would have stated that "no funds within the underlying bill for various service-related programs can go to “ACORN or any of its affiliate organizations in any way.”ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It’s a community organizing group for “low- and moderate-income people” according to its website.The group’s political committees generally support Democrats. Senator Vitter's amendment was killed by a vote of 53 to 43.
On the other hand, I am disappointed in our NC Senator Richard Burr, who, rather than voting to kill the bill, introduced an amendment to require an FBI Background Check on every volunteer. The way I understand the bill, everyone will be required to volunteer in some way, so there will be an FBI file on everyone. Fortunately, Senator Burr's amendment was not passed.
The following is an excerpt from the blog of Axis of the Right, conservative watchdog group:
The House of Representatives passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (GIVE), creating a mandate for community service among high school and college students. The bill spends $6 billion on beefing up government-paid and sponsored national service programs, and paves the way for future mandatory service by establishing a commission to explore the feasibility of such a plan. The stated goal of the Obama Administration is to require service programs in secondary schools, as well as for a period of three months to a year of service before, during, or after one’s college education.
Leaving aside the already talked about civilian socialist army comparisons, expanding government’s role in the business of community service is a bad idea for several reasons. First, it places a mandate on what should be a “volunteer” activity. Community service is a wonderful thing, but it is and should be the result of volunteering or goodwill on the part of participants. Second, coordination of such efforts are best applied at the local level. The Federal Government has not demonstrated an ability to run anything efficiently, and a national mandatory community service program for ALL young people has the potential to grow into an enormous bureaucracy that can never be effectively managed. Finally, and probably most ominously, the service mandate would do severe harm to organized religion and move our nation to a more secular society. The bill would severely harm local religious charities, as it does not allow coordination with any religious organization. Religious charities do some of the best charitable work in this country, and do it in a cost-effective way. Forcing young people to give up their time to a government charity will preclude many of these people from serving in religious charities that they may otherwise be inclined to serve in.
Additionally, the bill also bars participants in the program (which, remember, will likely end up being mandatory) from participating in religious activities. This blatantly unconstitutional provision will no doubt be hailed by both liberals and the ACLU as protecting that great “Wall of Separation” between church and state. Combined with its likely effect on religious charities, this bill essentially ends up moving creating a statist replacement for religious activity. By separating the role of churches from service and forbidding religious participation while in the program, the government is promoting a marginalization of the next generation of Americans from organized religion. With many Republicans on board due to the feel-good soundbite of “community service”, the bill is likely to become law. It is tragic that religion, which has been a hallmark of American society since it’s founding, will be the biggest victim of this bill, further moving our nation towards a secularism that was never envisioned by our founders.
More later when I've had a chance to digest what they've done...actually, I don't think it can be digested...puked is more likely.
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