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United States Senate United States Senate Background Guide B CAHSMUN XVII Letter from the Director Dear Senators, Our names are Othman Mekhloufi and Joshua Dar Santos, and we have the distinct pleasure of serving as the Co-Presidents of the 117th session of the United States Senate at CAHSMUN 2021. This year, we will be serving alongside your brilliant Chairs Alec Yang and Nikki Wu. The United States Senate is the Upper Chamber of the United States Congress. Each state consists of two Senators, and in this year’s committee, the goal is to pass two pieces of legislation through the Senate. This iteration of the United States Senate will focus on the topics of affordable healthcare and infrastructure development of black communities. With the current session of the Senate sitting at a 50 Democrat-50 Republican split, Senators will have to practice and master their persuasion, diplomatic, and compromising skills in order to come to a bipartisan agreement. Whether you are a new or seasoned delegate, we hope that this committee will provide you with valuable information and knowledge on U.S. government and structure. Most importantly, however, we hope that you will find your own unforgettable memories in this committee, and we genuinely wish that your experience at CAHSMUN 2021 is just as enjoyable as it is educational. We wish you the best of luck in your pre-conference preparations, and should any questions or concerns arise, please do not hesitate to contact us through the committee email, [email protected]. We, on the behalf of the entire dais team, look forward to meeting you all this April and welcome you to the United States Senate. Sincerely, Othman Mekhloufi and Joshua Dar Santos Co-Presidents of the 117th United States Senate — CAHSMUN 2021 Committee Description The legislative branch of the United States of America is composed of the Congress, a bicameral legislature divided into two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The aim of the Senate is to represent the States equally whereas that of the House of Representatives, or the House, is to represent the populace democratically and proportionally. The Senate is made up of two Senators for each state regardless of population. As the upper house of Congress, the Senate reserves certain rights not held by the House of Representatives—it is charged with confirming Presidential nominees of Secretaries of many Departments in the executive branch, conducts impeachment trials on public officials in the federal government, dissects international bills and treaties, and implements cloture on debates (the act of blocking legislation or debate on a certain issue). However, the Senate also maintains a set of limitations. Spending and tax bills, for example, must originate from and are largely controlled by the House. New bills can be introduced in either part of Congress, or both simultaneously. When legislation is newly drafted, it first goes to one of 19 sub-committees, such as the Budget Committee or the Ways and Means Committee for approval, then to the House assembled, and finally to the Senate assembled for a final vote. This thorough process can take months, going through dozens of revisions and criticisms throughout the many committees in both houses of Congress. Once the Senate and House have ironed out differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, it is finally presented to the president of the United States for signing, where it is then passed and waits to be enacted into law or vetoed. Voting in the chamber follows a straightforward procedure: when a bill comes to voting, the presiding officer asks for the vote of each Senator, where they respond with either “Yea” or “Aye” in favour, or “Nay” in opposition. The share of votes needed to pass a bill is a simple majority.1 As the centre of legislation for all of the United States, the decisions of the Senate hold economic, social, humanitarian, and international impacts. It is therefore crucial that Senators are able to analyze the consequences behind each policy alteration with extensive knowledge on each topic. 1 https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/how-a-bill-becomes-a-law Topic Overview African-American communities in the United States disproportionately face socioeconomic disparities in the form of crumbling public infrastructure such as schools, housing, healthcare, transportation, and more. In the past, racist attitudes and policies in the United States, both in the private and public sectors, have politically, economically, and socially disenfranchised these minority groups. First starting with the African slave trade in the 17th century, racist disenfranchisement then slowly inched to segregation and Jim Crow laws, ultimately being addressed by the Reconstruction Era and the civil rights movement. The centuries which encapsulated these events saw the end of slavery and established equal protection under the law, but simultaneously underwent discriminatory lending practices and socioeconomic injustices. The turmoil of these practices have led to events which shaped the history of the union such as the Civil War, Black Lives Matter, and a series of other activism-driven operations to achieve racial justice. Today, in the 21st century, these infrastructural shortcomings manifest themselves in outcomes, such as high levels of crime and poverty, along with overall poor quality of life. Generally speaking, this is seen in examples such as lower life expectancy, accessibility to healthcare, higher community crime rates, and poor housing. The United States Senate, as the upper house of Congress, holds distinct authority to dismantle previous programs and establish new ones which remedy the issues found today on the federal level that states do not have the power or authority to address. Senators are now tasked with identifying the causes of these disparities and implementing means of resolving them through whichever policies they deem most effective, such as housing reform, free- market economics, government subsidies, restitutions, education, and a variety of other available ideas. Timeline August 20, 1619 –– Privateer ship “The White Lion” arrives with twenty African slaves in the British Colony of Jamestown, Virginia, marking the beginning of slavery in North America.2 July 2, 1777 –– Vermont becomes the first state in the union to abolish slavery.3 2 history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony 3 https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/vermont-1777-early-steps-against-slavery March 26, 1790 –– The Naturalization Act of 1790 is signed into law, limiting naturalization of citizenship to “free white persons[s].”4 April 12, 1861 –– The United States Civil War commences, creating a stark divide between pro and anti-slavery states regarding the rights of African-Americans.5 December 6, 1865 –– The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, nationally abolishing slavery.6 July 9, 1868 –– The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, awarding citizenship to former slaves and establishing equal protection under the law.7 February 3, 1870 –– The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, prohibiting states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”8 May 18, 1896 –– The Supreme Court of the United States rules in a landmark case, Plessy v. Ferguson, that state laws segregating White-Americans from Black-Americans are constitutional under the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause, establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine.9 June 27, 1934 –– Following the Great Depression, in an attempt to stimulate the economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) signs the National Housing Act into law, making federal guarantees to mortgages only available to White-Americans.10 July 2, 1964 –– The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed into law, prohibiting private and public- sector discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national identity.11 4 https://immigrationhistory.org/item/1790-nationality-act/ 5 https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/american-civil-war-history#section_2 6 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment#section_5 7 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth- amendment#:~:text=The%2014th%20Amendment%20to%20the,era%20to%20abolish%20slavery%20and 8 https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=44 9 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson 10 https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/national-housing-act-1934/ 11 https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97 April 11, 1968 –– The Fair Housing Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968, is signed into law, nationally prohibiting discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.12 May 27, 2015 –– Wisconsin-based Associated Banc-Corp makes a USD 200 million settlement in providing mortgage loans with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for systematically denying mortgages to African-American and Hispanic-American home buyers.13 Historical Analysis Slavery Disparities toward minority communities have always existed throughout the United States’ history, first starting with African-American slavery long before the founding of the Republic. The first African slaves in North America landed in the British Colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 on the English privateer ship The White Lion.14 They were seized from a Portuguese ship transporting slaves from Africa
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