Bringing Sunlight to Congress
Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com - an introduction given last Thursday by Dr. Paul on his proposed "Sunlight Rule", which would allow time for House members to read legislation before being asked to vote on it. Good idea. It's H. Res. 709, "Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that Members have a reasonable amount of time to read legislation that will be voted upon". [lew]
My proposed rule requires that no piece of legislation, including conference reports, can be brought before the House of Representatives unless it has been available to members and staff both in print and electronic versions for at least ten days. My bill also requires that a manager's amendment making substantive changes to a bill be available in both printed and electronic forms at least 72 hours before a vote. While manager's amendments usually are reserved for technical changes, oftentimes manager's amendments contain substantive additions to bills in the form of pork. Members should be made aware of such changes before being asked to vote on a bill.
The Sunlight Rule provides the American people the opportunity to be involved in enforcing congressional rules by allowing citizens to move for censure of any Representative who votes for a bill brought to the floor in violation of this act. The Sunlight Rule can never be waived by the Rules committee or House leadership. If an attempt is made to bring a bill to the floor in violation of this rule, any member can raise a point of order requiring the bill to be immediately pulled from the House calendar.
