Posting Legislation for Public View Before Voting

When President Obama was sworn in on January 20, 2009, Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in more than 15 years.  Since then, Congress has rushed through several pieces of legislation allowing little or no time to read the actual text of the legislation before voting.  This is a common abuse of power when one party controls the legislative process (in other words, Republicans were not immune either).

• When she was elected as Speaker, Nancy Pelosi promised that members would have at least 24 hours to examine bills prior to floor consideration.  See page 24 of the Speaker's New Direction for America.

• However, the Speaker has broken her own 24-hour rule multiple times by rushing through dozens of major bills.  The list includes several recent examples, including several bills that were more than 1,000 pages in length.
  • Economic stimulus legislation (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).
  • Cap-and-trade global warming legislation.
  • S-CHIP expansion.

• Not everybody agrees that it would be a good idea to allow enough time for Members of Congress (let alone the public) to read legislation, particularly the health reform bill:
  • In spite of her earlier promise, on June 25 the Speaker said she would not agree to allow one week to examine the health reform bill.
  • On July 8, Democratic House Leader Steny Hoyer said , " If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn't read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes."
  • On July 24, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers openly wondered , "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"

• In spite of the Congressional reluctance to read the bill, thousands of Americans actually did read the 1,000-page health reform bill during the month of August.  They brought what they learned to town hall meetings across the country.  At several town hall meetings, it was apparent that citizens had read the bill but their Congressman had not.
  • Sen. Arlen Specter.
  • Rep. Leonard Boswell.
  • Rep. Russ Carnahan.

• Legislation has been introduced ( H. Res. 554 ) that would require legislation to be available on the Internet for 72 hours before consideration.  The legislation was introduced by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and currently has 164 cosponsors.
  • Because the Democratic leadership won't consider H. Res. 554, a motion to discharge (a "discharge petition") was introduced on September 23 and is currently collecting signatures.
  • A discharge petition bypasses the Speaker and Democrat-controlled committees to bring the legislation directly to the House of Representatives for consideration.
  • To succeed, a discharge petition needs at least 218 signatures.
  • As of 10/5, the discharge petition has 182 signatures.

• The day after the discharge petition was introduced, Speaker Pelosi was asked whether she supports the requirement for legislation to be available for 72 hours before consideration.  She responded, " Absolutely."  But if Speaker Pelosi "absolutely" supported the 72 hour rule, there wouldn't be any need for a discharge petition (the purpose of which is to bypass the Speaker).