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Representative Tom Petri is cosponsoring legislation to require House leaders to make the complete text of bills available on the Web for at least 72 hours before those bills can come up for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.
He says there is a growing trend in Congress of bills being reported out of committee and almost immediately being brought up for up-or-down votes on the House floor before most representatives and the general public have an opportunity to actually read the legislation.
"Many of these bills are long and complicated and take time to digest," Petri said. "We all know the devils can sometimes be in the details."
"There are provisions in the case of a declaration of war and a number of other emergency situations for the current rules, which allow immediate consideration, to continue. And there is also a provision that a 2/3rds vote of the House could set aside this rule - but that strengthens things considerably because currently there are rules that provide for the layover of bills, but they are almost routinely, these days, waived as part of a motion to bring up a bill by majority vote," he said.
The House leaders are unlikely to allow a vote, so Petri has signed a discharge petition to force a vote. Currently, there are 173 signatures on the petition, with 218 required to bring the resolution, H. Res. 554, to the floor of the House.
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Transcript of Rep. Petri's Comments:
"Recently in Congress there has been a growing trend toward bills being reported out of committee and almost immediately brought up for up-or-down votes on the House floor before members who aren't on the committees, particularly - or the general public [and] other interested people - have had a chance to actually read the legislation. Many of these bills are long and complicated and take time to digest.
"We all know the devils can sometimes be in the details, so I have been happy to cosponsor legislation and to sign a discharge petition to bring the legislation before the House for an up-or-down vote to provide that any legislation that is considered for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives has to be available 72 hours in advance both to members and to the general public on the Web before it can be voted on.
"There are provisions in the case of a declaration of war and a number of other emergency situations for the current rules, which allow immediate consideration, to continue. And there is also a provision that a 2/3rds vote of the House could set aside this rule - but that strengthens things considerably because currently there are rules that provide for the layover of bills, but they are almost routinely, these days, waived as part of a motion to bring up a bill by majority vote.
"So this requires, basically, a 2/3rds vote rather than a majority vote to consider something within less than 72 hours. So I think it strengthens it considerably, and is really what the spirit of due deliberation has been all along - but that spirit has not been observed very much lately."
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