Reading Legislation Is Your Job!
By Frank Salvato
JUly 31, 2009
It would appear that some of our elected officials -- oh heck, let's say most of our elected officials -- believe it isn't necessary to read legislation before voting on it. A perfect example of this is playing out right now in Congress with regard to the healthcare legislation where several high-ranking elected officials have unabashedly stated that expecting elected officials to read legislation, in its entirety, before voting on it, is to expect too much. Really...
Recently, at a National Press Club Luncheon, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said:
"I love these members who stand up and say, 'Read the bill!'. What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and...and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"
Note to Mr. Conyers: It's your job to read every bill you vote on. If the job requires an intelligence quotient "above your pay grade," perhaps you should consider leaving public office for a job for which you are more intellectually suited.
In addition to Conyers -- the same John Conyers that doesn't believe it is necessary to investigate the questionable activity of ACORN and from whom we have heard nary a peep about the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case that Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to prosecute with any zeal -- we now here that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland doesn't think any House member will read -- or should be expected to read -- the proposed health care legislation before they vote on it.
Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe writes:
At a news conference a few weeks back, Hoyer was asked by a reporter if he would support a pledge committing members of Congress to read the bill before voting on it and to make the bill available for public review for 72 hours prior to the vote.
Hoyer responded, as he laughed -- laughed:
"I'm laughing because I don't know how long this bill is going to be, but it's going to be a very long bill...If every member pledged not to vote for it if they hadn't read it in its entirety I think we would have very few votes."
Personally, I don't find anything funny about the issue or Hoyer's statement, nor that of Mr. Conyers.
We the People, elect people to go to Washington, to be seated in our federal government, to do the work of government, not to occupy seats in Congress to pledge votes for political parties.
The premier job of an elected official is to secure the rights of their constituents in the face of federal legislation, whether that legislation is aimed at their locale or not. The only way -- only way -- that can be done is for each and every elected official to thoroughly read and understand each and every piece of legislation that they are set to vote on. Today, this isn't happening. Today we have elected officials in Congress who are literally derelict in their sworn duties; elected officials who have put their political parties and ideologies above the interests of their constituencies.
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