Forty-two seconds a page—that is how long members of Congress were given to read, understand, evaluate and consider all the implications for the largest spending bill in history. Even worse, the public (read: you and me) never had a chance to access the language of the bill before passage.
But this was not a problem peculiar to the so called stimulus legislation, or even a problem unique to this Congress. Much ground breaking legislation has flown through Congress over the years with hardly a review, much less a responsible, thorough review, much less enough of a review to reasonably assess the impact on the country or to try to fathom the unintended consequences.
And while Congress not taking the time to review legislation that literally changes our way of life is bad enough, the way the current system operates the public is excluded altogether—not even provided a glimpse of the actual legislation being debated by our national political representatives.
The solution? Post everything online in a timely way. Really use the power of the Internet to deepen and strengthen democracy.
IPI has joined with the Sunlight Foundation in a project called “Read the Bill” found at www.ReadTheBill.org. The premise is simple—Congress should post all non-emergency bills online for 72 hours before they are debated. That way all of the Congress, not to mention the people, can consider the actual legislation to be debated and will have the opportunity to have their voices heard.
We have all seen the results of what happens when legislative information is kept secret, with closed door meetings and political favors tucked into legislation because no one reads the bill. By definition this is information that we, the people, own—not to mention that we also pay for the results. While we delegate authority to those we elect to mange government for us, we have not surrendered our rights to know what they are doing with our rights, our money, and our country.
Let us “read the bill!”