Here’s a novel idea: What if lawmakers in Congress read the bills before casting their vote?
A conservative-leaning organization is asking our national leaders to do just that before voting on the emerging health-care reform bill.
Many will see the move as regrettable grandstanding by Republicans. Yet isn’t it sad that confidence in our lawmakers is so low that many other Americans will applaud this grandstanding?
The Let Freedom Ring organization has crafted a two-part pledge that asks House and Senate members to promise to read the full text of any health-care reform legislation. It also asks that the bill and its amendments be posted online for public viewing for at least 72 hours prior to a final vote in each chamber.
Congress has been embarrassed twice this year in voting for 1,000- page bills that were rushed through so quickly that few had the chance to read the basics, much less the fine print. The $787 billion stimulus bill was hurried through, and the cap-and-trade bill passed the House despite a dangerous, 300-page amendment added in the final hours that contained a provision that risks a global trade war.
Yet before “Blue Dog” Democrats slowed the furious pace of reforming health care, another rush job was in the works.
Though we want to see substantial reform, we continue to question the need for speed in reshaping an industry that accounts for as much as 17 percent of the economy.
Let Freedom Ring president Colin Hanna concedes that he finds it acceptable that lawmakers normally divide bills among staff experts to sift through for policy and funding considerations. On the other hand, “There are certain bills that because of their scope and their importance rise to a higher level of concern,” Hanna says. The stimulus bill, cap-and-trade and health-care reform are just such bills, he says.
Washington’s work would crawl to a stop if we demanded our lawmakers read every word of the many bills inundating the halls of power.
We have no problem with staff members reading bills — just so long as someone is reading them.
But we do like the idea of posting legislation online for public scrutiny for 72 hours prior to a final vote.
Candidate Barack Obama promised to post non-emergency bills online for five days prior to his signing them. But as fact-checkers have shown, it’s been a broken promise.
Lawmakers need to be more accountable this time around.
