Ending the rush — 10/11/09 » Editorials » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

Discussion

October 9, 2009

Ending the rush — 10/11/09

Legislators and people need time to at least read the bills

Anonymous The Daily Independent Fri Oct 09, 2009, 04:16 PM EDT

A bipartisan resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives would give both the elected representatives and the American people time to read the final version of a bill before it is voted on by the entire House. It would eliminate the mad rush to enact bills that House members have not even had time to read and would actively seek public input on the bill’s final version before it is too late.

Yet Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have to date refused to bring the resolution to vote by the entire House, and a discharge resolution that would have forced a vote fell 36 votes short.

House Resolution 554 would require all non-emergency legislation to be posted in its final form on the Internet for at least 72 hours — or three days — before the final vote.

Not only is this an excellent idea for Congress, but the Kentucky General Assembly should approve a similar requirement before a final vote on bills. That would eliminate the final day of the 60- or 30-day sessions of the General Assembly in which individual legislators are asked to vote on dozens of bills — including the two-year state budget — that they have not had time to read.

Voting in ignorance is always dangerous, and members of Congress and the Kentucky General Assembly are shirking their responsibility when they vote for or against a bill they have not even read. Many times legislators have been surprised to discover, after the fact, that a bill they supported includes a controversial provision that they did not even know was in it.

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-4th, one of the sponsors of H.R. 554, provides two excellent examples of why it is needed. He claims Pelosi called for a vote on the massive 1,075-page economic stimulus package just 15 hours after all House members had received a final copy of the bill.

Even worse, Davis says House members did not receive the final copy of the 1,201-page environmental bill — a proposal that could have a tremendous impact on the future of coal and this region — until 3:09 a.m. on the day of the final House vote. That’s absurd. Only speed-reading insomniacs would have had time to even read the bill in its final form. That’s a recipe for bad government.

“Elected representatives cannot do their job properly without the time to read and fully digest the legislation upon which they are voting,” Davis said. “Americans deserve the opportunity to review the legislation and share their views on it with elected representatives before it comes to the House floor.”

Davis is right, of course. Unfortunately, we suspect it often is the intent of legislative leaders — whether they are Republicans or Democrats — to rush bills into law that they know individual members have not had time to even read, much less debate. They have learned through experience that hastily enacting bills is an excellent way of getting their pet projects funded or controversial proposals enacted into law.

There is little question that H.R. 554 would result in both better laws and better informed members of Congress. That alone should be reason enough to approve the resolution. Unfortunately, it is not for those powerful members of Congress who gain from the ignorance of other members and the foolish, unnecessary rush to enact bill into law.

Of course, if the resolution is approved, we already can see a possible loophole that members are likely to use in an attempt to avoid the 72-hour waiting period. It will be interesting to see just how loosely and creatively lawmakers define an “emergency” to rush a bill into law.

Text Only

Editorials

'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.

February 7, 2012
Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.

February 7, 2012
Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

February 6, 2012
Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.

February 6, 2012
Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.

February 4, 2012
Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.

February 3, 2012
Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.

February 2, 2012
Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.

February 1, 2012
Retiring
Dr. Gregory Adkins has served as president of Ashland Community and Technical College during a period of rapid growth and substantial changes. Adkins announced last week that he will retire June 30 after almost 11 years as the head of the school that now is located not only just off 13th Street in Ashland but also is in EastPark more than 20 miles from the Ashland campus.

January 31, 2012
Work at home
While it is not for everyone, for those with the right skills and talents, Kentucky Teleworks works. Just ask Alison Boskovic of Louisa.

January 26, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Discussion

Ending the rush — 10/11/09

Legislators and people need time to at least read the bills

Site Map

Contact Us