The RTBA: Read the Bills Act http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml
would make it a requirement that proposed legislation be posted to the internet for 7 days prior to a vote in Congress and that the bills actually be read in Congress before the vote. Sounds like a good idea. Of course, it wouldn't be possible to have gargantuan complicated bills so Congress would need to change the way they approach the task of legislation. Could the RTBA work? Would it improve the way our government functions? Should it be proposed at the State government level, too?
If this leads to less legislation, that would force congress to focus on the more important issues. Citizens and groups could read bills that affected them and we could have (Ta-Da!) a public debate of the issues.
This is the best way to prevent another act like the Patriot Act. If the American people were allowed to actually read it before it was passed, the uproar as a result would have made legistlators think twice before passing it.
This could allow for significant debate among the American people that would actually help the government better meet the needs of the people. Yes, it may be up to the legislators to make these descisions, and should be their responsibility, but sometimes (most times) their judgement is clouded and limited by special intrest groups, lobbyists, and other pressures.
The American people are not so pressured and can speak more freely.
This sounds great in theory. But in practice, things just aren't read. If the lawmakers in our country had to read or had to sit through someone else reading the extent of every bill that crosses the table, even more nothing would be done by this government. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the day when we actually have a government that is required to know what it is they are voting for before doing so.
If this actually passed, it would slow congress down at first. But in the long run you would see bills get shorter and there would be less chance that some one could sneak something into law. But sadly, this will never pass, too many in Government are lazy and don't want to read the bills they sign into law.
Lawmakers can possibly be expected to read all of the bills submitted to Congress due to the sheer volume of pages. Like other organizations, they have developed a system to deal with this problem of information overload - namely, subdivision of labor into committees. They rely on the committee members to read the legislation (who should read the legislation), and summarize the substance to the legislative body at large. Requiring each member of Congress to read every piece of legislation would require the reading of millions of pages a year by each member- a waste of time and resources. This is analogous to requiring you as an individual read each online privacy statement and licensing agreement for each website that you register with. Nobody I know does this, even those capable of understanding these things -- because it's... [show more]
Lawmakers can possibly be expected to read all of the bills submitted to Congress due to the sheer volume of pages. Like other organizations, they have developed a system to deal with this problem of information overload - namely, subdivision of labor into committees. They rely on the committee members to read the legislation (who should read the legislation), and summarize the substance to the legislative body at large. Requiring each member of Congress to read every piece of legislation would require the reading of millions of pages a year by each member- a waste of time and resources. This is analogous to requiring you as an individual read each online privacy statement and licensing agreement for each website that you register with. Nobody I know does this, even those capable of understanding these things -- because it's a waste of time -- information overload. This solution is a simplistic band-aid to a complicated issue. [show less]
It would almost certainly kill pork barrel spending (good!), but it might also lead to a blogocracy, in which a few political bloggers like myself hold all the power. (bad.)
While we hope our representatives will read legislation, they simply don't have the time or the interest. Instead, we can rely on each other to find the truly onus aspects of a bill and then use the internet to disperse our displeasure. I suspect the digg effect would be quite handy in turning around the quality of legislation.
If lawmakers would realize that the constitution exist as a set of guidelines for the type of laws that are legal in the first place, this contry would be MUCH better off. As an example, in 2005 Congress passed a bill that grave the oil companys billions of dollars in tax breaks in the new Energy bill. Then in 2006 ExxonMobile and the lot made RECORD high profits. Coincides, yeah right. But where in the constituion does it say "We the people, service Big Corperate Businesses?" Nowhere. Maybe I'm a little off topic but, Congress needs to start realizing that it's job is to SERVE THE PEOPLE of the U.S.A not SCREW them. We're a capitalistic society, it makes no sense to give tax breaks to big corporations, and raise the taxes of the average worker. If consumers had more money, by not being taxed to death, they could spend more money, raising... [show more]
If lawmakers would realize that the constitution exist as a set of guidelines for the type of laws that are legal in the first place, this contry would be MUCH better off. As an example, in 2005 Congress passed a bill that grave the oil companys billions of dollars in tax breaks in the new Energy bill. Then in 2006 ExxonMobile and the lot made RECORD high profits. Coincides, yeah right. But where in the constituion does it say "We the people, service Big Corperate Businesses?" Nowhere. Maybe I'm a little off topic but, Congress needs to start realizing that it's job is to SERVE THE PEOPLE of the U.S.A not SCREW them. We're a capitalistic society, it makes no sense to give tax breaks to big corporations, and raise the taxes of the average worker. If consumers had more money, by not being taxed to death, they could spend more money, raising corperations revenue, then the corporations could be fairly taxed as the Constitution outlines they should be, and our econemy would be all the stronger for it.
So no, it won't help, because Congress still works for the wrong people in the end. [show less]
Does anyone remember the "Plain Speech" initiative? This would have been a law that would have required all bills to be translated into "Voter understandable" language and made viewable to the public simple by asking. Or the "Contract With America" that was supposed to have made members of Congress "The same as every other American Citizen". Bottom line the people who propose this kind of law might have the best intentions, but since most Governmental Actors do not care what we think between elections this kind of feel good law will have no teeth whatsoever by the time it gets to a vote.
Doesn't this concept assume a basic literacy rate among our elected officials? I think the biggest hurdle in making something like this happen would be the massive training needed to insure literacy.
Checking.... 
on March 8th, 2007. Tags: congress, democracy, laws, legislation, rtba
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Bye-bye pork and every other horrible "rider".
In which ways is Democracy inadequate?
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/129
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/5293