Site Policy
Petitions calling for special joint sessions of Congress will
be the focal point of this site's activities. No matter how important
a particular year's cause might be, outside activities such as
marches, demonstrations, and boycotts will neither be advocated
or participated in. To do otherwise would be to leave ourselves
open to legitimate charges of partisanship, thereby limiting our
future effectiveness.
Petition Focus & Frequency
Petitions will be limited to one per year, and will have a targeted
activation date of July 4th. Prior to activation, the Senate and
House of Representatives calendars for that year will be reviewed.
If each of them has at least 130 days scheduled, then that year's
petition will be canceled.
Petitions will be conducted strictly online, and will be directed
to either Congress or the President. The preferred route will be
the presidential one because our Constitution specifically authorizes
them to call for special sessions on extraordinary occasions.
Congress was targeted this year simply because it seemed highly
unlikely that a Republican President would draw attention to the
failures of a Republican-controlled Congress by calling them into
special session.
Petitions will always request special joint sessions of at least
a week's duration, though sessions of greater length may at
times be strongly recommended.
In cases of national emergency, an ongoing petition may be canceled
and replaced by a petition more closely related to that emergency.
Petition Criteria
Determination of the wording of each year's petition will be
solely at the discretion of NationalDebate.org. Concerning the
issues to be covered, however, certain criteria will prevail:
- Major nationwide polls should confirm the issue to be among
the top 5 of importance to voters.
- To ensure a greater chance of success in what is presently
a highly partisan political environment, preference will be given
to issues that have traditionally tended to be more nonpartisan
in nature.
- Preference will also be given to issues that have caused extremely
large numbers of American citizens (or organizations representing
them) to actively pressure Congress for action.
About the Current Petition
Iraq, the subject for our initial petition in 2006, satisfies
all 3 of the above criteria:
- The Iraq War has, for several years, consistently been one
of the top concerns for voters.
- Although opposition to war often begins in a partisan manner,
it tends to grow more and more nonpartisan as time goes on. Consider
President Johnson, who was elected in a landslide
in 1964. Four years later, opposition to his handling of
the Vietnam War within his own Democratic party had grown so
strong that he felt compelled not to seek reelection. [1, 2]
Now, almost 40 years later, more and more Republicans are joining
the ranks of those opposed to the Bush administration's handling
of the Iraq War. [1, 2, 3, 4]
- Numerous citizen groups, in particular the Win
Without War Coalition, have risen in opposition to the
war. Their members and supporters number in the millions.
Although a special effort was made to be as nonpartisan as
possible in the wording of this year's petition, it inevitably
wound up biased against Republicans. Democrats were not even
mentioned, though they controlled the House of Representatives
from 1955-1994 and were therefore solely responsible for the
reduction in days per session that occured in the 1960s, '70s,
and '80s. Republicans were singled out in this year's petition
because scheduling is now totally under their control as the
majority party, and they have pushed the decline in work days
to new extremes. Other Policies
Additional policies may be added in the future to better serve
NationalDebate.org's main policy objective: to provide citizens
with a simple nonpartisan means of getting Congress to do a better
job of fulfilling it's legislative and oversight responsibilities.
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