Political Science

1.

As the lawmaking body, the US congress currently have a number of bills under consideration most of which are still in the house committees. For the purpose of this paper, four pending bills are examined; bill H.R. 3862, H.R. 3873, H.R. 3876, S. 1917.

Bill no. bill H.R. 3862 was passed to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on 14^th January 2014. The bill which is aimed at amending the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was introduced by Representative Robert Latta and has since gained the support of congressman Robert E. Andrews and is aimed at assisting regional sewer and municipal authorities in raising revenue for projects and activities related to wastewater management (THOMAS, 2014). Bill H.R. 3873 was introduced by Representative Honda Michael and is aimed at amending Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in an effort to support community schools models. The bill is currently under the House Committee on Education and Workforce and is supported by was Representative Raul Grijalva (THOMAS, 2014).   Bill H.R.3876 is aims at amending title 38 of the United States Code to allow Secretary of Veterans Affairs to partake grant programs aimed at providing burials for veterans who are otherwise homeless. Introduced by Representative Green AI., the Bill is currently under the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and has the support of Rep. Corrine Brown. Bill S. 1917 was introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill and is aimed at providing additional enhancements for preventing sexual assaults by the armed forces.  The Bill is currently under the Senate Legislative Calendar awaiting the first reading and is supported by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (United States Senate 2014).

Personally, I would support Bill H.R. 3862 on the grounds that if this bill is to be passed, it offers opportunities for wastewater management and reduced environmental pollution. Wastewater management especially in urban areas where the demographics are higher has been an impeding problem for a long period and its time the federal government empowered municipalities and other regulatory authorities through assisted project funding in dealing with this problem. I would also support Bill H.R. 3873 on the basis of the continually increasing tuition fees which have by extension inhibited many young people from pursuing university education. Community sponsored schools would go a long way in bridging the existing gap in the education sectors as they would increase competitiveness and also lower the cost of education for many. The same would go for Bill S. 1917 given the rising cases of oppression by the army forces that the society especially women are suffering from. The army exists to protect and offer security but not to oppress the very society that it is supposed to be protecting. Bill H.R. 3876 would however not get my support not because it is bad piece of legislation but because of the believe that more can be done than offer burial places and related services to our homeless veterans. Arguably, the government has a responsibility to honor the effortless dedication and the sweat that war veterans underwent for national interest. The government should aim at providing homeless veterans with accommodation and jobs and where such measures fail, a program that ensures their smooth survival should be put in place.

2.

The major function of the Electoral College is to vote for the president and the vice president. In this regard, the college constitutes of electors voted by the American people and who are charged with the responsibility of choosing the president and the vice president through a Vote (Bugh, 2010). Arguably, the Electoral College is far much away from the doctrines of democracy. Major reason for this assertion is that the system under which the college thrives does not give equal  opportunities to the states in regard to the number of electors. For example, out of the 538 electors currently in the Electoral College, 55 of them come from the state of California contrary to smaller states such as North Dakota that has three to four electors. In this regard, smaller states are required to adhere to the wishes of the bigger states. This also creates a disadvantage in that majority of this electors are likely to vote not on the basis of popularity or ability to dispense duties but rather on partisan basis.

Work Cited:

THOMAS. The Library of Congress. 2014. Web. <http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d109query.html>
Bugh, Gary. Electoral College Reform: Challenges and Possibilities. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub, 2010. Print.

United States Senate. Picturing the Senate. 2014. Web. <http://www.senate.gov/>