Politics

Read the Bill Becoming the Norm

By Paul Blumenthal

Check out this line from Jay Newton-Small’s Swampland blog post on the way forward for health care reform in the House:

Once they have a bill, Dems need to post it online for at least 72 hours for members to review before a vote.

The fact that reporters covering Congress are stating that the Majority “needs” to post the bill online for 72 hours shows how far the Read the Bill effort has gone. As this policy has become the norm it is increasingly clear how important legislative information is to both individual members of Congress and ordinary people.

Congress should still pass a rules change to require the 72 hours reading time to make the policy enforceable. Still, you’ve shown Congress that people out there want to be able to read legislation and be assured that their representatives have enough time to read and study the bills.

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on March 16, 2010 (boomark / email).