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Should Congress read the bills?
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Rep.Conyers: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
Democratic Representative John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has raised some eyebrows with his blatantly undemocratic statement. Responding to criticism about Congress passing bills they don’t take the time to read, he said, “I love these members that get up and say, ‘read the bill!’ Well, what good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you’ve read the bill?” That excuse wouldn’t even fly in high school. He could have at least tried, “Look, America, I was going to read it, but my Aunt died over the weekend.”
He said this, of course, as the entire country is focused on healthcare reform bills -- bills that could completely reshape not only healthcare, but our entire economy. Some congressmen, however, like Conyers, don’t think that the healthcare bill is important enough to read. In an ultimate nod to the American slacker stereotype, he seemed to indicate that the longer and more complex a bill is, the less likely he is to read it. Don’t worry, John. I’m sure there’s a Cliff’s Notes version available.
While he does have a point in that the bills are unnecessarily lengthy and complex, an issue as important as healthcare reform should demand a little extra effort on his part. Let Freedom Ring, a conservative organization, agrees and has created a petition to that effect. The full pledge is as follows:
I, [NAME OF LAWMAKER], pledge to my constituents and the American people that I will not vote to enact any healthcare reform package that (1) I have not read, personally, in its entirety; and, (2) has not been available, in its entirety, to the American people on the Internet for at least 72 hours, so that they can read it too.
That’s it. The pledge is short and simple enough that even Conyers should be able to muddle through it. If he needs help, there are quite a few members of Congress that went to law school. So far, of the 100 senators, only 7 have signed the pledge. Of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, only 86 have signed. None of the 93 members who signed are Democrats. So is this political grandstanding on the part of the Republican party? Yeah, probably, but the message rings loud and clear. This bill is too important to skim, or for some, to not bother reading at all. It’s disappointing that no Democrats have signed the pledge, but it’s equally disappointing that so many Republicans haven’t, either.
This, of course, is hardly anything new. The so-called “stimulus” and “cap and trade” bills passed earlier this year were both around a thousand pages and were passed before everyone had time to read them. Back in 2001, the PATRIOT Act, which was also over 1,000 pages, was passed, despite the fact that several members of Congress didn’t bother to read it. Maybe if everyone had read it we could have avoided the moment of Democrats crying, “Whoa, you’re wiretapping who?”
Members of Congress don’t read the bills because they’re too long and complex, something as a student I thought about Moby Dick. The consequences of not reading a Herman Melville novel, though, are only that I would probably score poorly on the essay test. The consequences of passing a bad healthcare bill would be much more devastating. The fact is, the reason Congress exists in the first place is because it would be impractical for all 304 million American citizens to get together, propose and write a bill, read it and vote on it whenever a new one is needed (Speaking of which, I’m sure Obama will have the bill on the White House website any day now). Therefore, we elect the members of Congress to do all of that for us as our representatives. Now Congress doesn’t want to do it, either. If not them, then who? Can we maybe get congressional pages to read the bill or are they too busy? Five of them are quarantined in their dorms because of swine flu, so they at least should have the time.
Since they have a break coming up, maybe Congress can consider the healthcare bill summer reading. Students at the University of North Carolina were required to read the Qur’an over the summer break, and I imagine they thought it was long and complicated. It’s time that Congress remembers that they work for us and start doing their job. No member in either party should keep that job if they don’t buckle down and study.
And for the record, I have since read Moby Dick and can recommend it, though it’s still excessively long.
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