Anyone heard of the Read The Bills Act?

[ccarnel]

This is copied from the Falfiles.com

I'm tired of Congress passing laws that I have to obey, but which
they haven't even read. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for me, but
it's a way of life for Congress.

Just recently Senator Feinstein of California stood up in the Senate
and complained because a bill she voted for contained a provision she
hadn't known about. She didn't know about it, because she didn't read
the bill before she passed it into law.

And Senator Kyl of Arizona was recently caught claiming in public
that a bill he voted for contained Constitutional protections that it
did not in fact contain. He gave bad information and misled the
public because he probably didn't read the bill before he voted on
it.

Congress passes thousands of pages of new laws every year, without
reading them. These bills are full of items inserted by bureaucrats
and lobbyists -- things that would never pass if our elected
representatives read the bills in advance, and actually knew what was
in them.

Imagine if you treated your tax returns the way Congress handles the
laws it creates. You'd go to jail.

I want to ask you for a favor. Help me. Help me fight this
Congressional irresponsibility. What I'm doing is incredibly easy.
You could do it too, and make my work far more effective. All it will
take from you is a few strokes of your keyboard and a few mouse
clicks.

I think you'll enjoy the process. You'll also have influence over
Congress that you don't have right now.

You elect people to Congress, but they never do what they say they're
going to do. But I, by contrast, have already had the experience of
changing votes in both the House and Senate, with my easy little key
strokes and mouse clicks.

You can have this power too, in a matter of minutes. And you could
really make my day if you write back to me to tell me you've done
what I'm about to suggest.

Go here <http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml>
and read about the "Read the Bills Act." Then click on the link and
fill out the form to send a message to Congress asking them to pass
the "Read the Bills Act." It will only take a couple of minutes.

 

[carpediem]

How about the "Show up to the Job You Spent Millions Campaigning For" Act or the "Please Vote on the Bills Instead of Fundraising" Act :banghead:

 

[ceetee]

Laws are made by lawyers, and for lawyers. It's in their best interest to make the laws so convoluted, using so much jargon that's outside the realm of what we consider "normal" English that an otherwise well-educated person can't make heads or tails of them. The more confusing the law is, the more we are forced to rely on lawyers, as if they hold some secret key to understanding.

This is a double-edged sword. The more pages a bill has, and the more the language in it is obscure, the harder it is to read. I can only imagine how many thousands of pages of legislation get voted on every year... certainly too many for any one person to read it all thoroughly enough to get an understanding of everything in them. Legislators have staffers that have the duty of reading all these bills, and delivering quick one- or two-line summaries to their employers.

I'd agree to enacting some kind of rule saying that when a legislator votes on a specific thing, he's acknowledging that he has, in fact, actually read the thing. I'd be more in favor of forcing them to take a "truth" oath. This oath would have them swear that any time they speak or write, for official government business, they must tell the truth. If at any time they can be found to be lying, they could be tried for perjury, or treason. See who wants the job then...

 

[hankdatank1362]

I like both ideas.