Lawmakers Demand Time to Read Bills Before Voting on Them

Two GOP state representatives say they are routinely asked to vote on bills that they haven't had a chance to read, a practice they say they want to stop.

Reps. Justin Amash, R-Cascade, and Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, co-sponsored a joint resolution requiring a 72-hour review period before any bill can be put up for a vote.

"It happens all the time," said Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, of the policy of quick votes with no time to read the legislation. "Everybody is looking at themselves and thinking, 'What in the world is this?' "

The bill requiring a three-day waiting period comes in the wake of the passing of House Bill 5872 last week, which involved allocating $312 million of the federal stimulus plan.

Amash said the Democrat-controlled House introduced the bill and then substituted a different version of it on the floor that was eight pages. The bill passed 90-14 Aug. 25. Agema, Amash and McMillin all voted "no."

IMHO, ANY bill that has even one (1) Rep that states "he/she didn't read it entirely themselves" should be struck down as unconstitutional because it does not represent fair representation of "the people".

I'll go further and state that any bastard that doesn't read the bill entirely should be, at the least, tarred and feathered; preferbally hung as a traitor to the Constitution. /henry bowman rant

What an astonishing concept: public debate by our elected officials with respect to the full text of the bills being debated.

What’s the news headlines lately? The people need to be re-educated about legislation that has been passed.

Oh, but didn’t Empress Pelosi state: “You have to pass it to find out what’s in it.”

The 1099 issue, for example, buried deep in the ObamaCare legislation, woudn’t have been a sockdolagers jack-in-the-box suprise.

Same thing with respect to Obama’s withholding tax-cut; the fundamental tax-liability wasn’t reduced though. How many Obama-droids were happy with their April tax due this year? How the media trumpeted workers taking home more money each week. Not a peep about the tax tables not being changed. Guess what happens next year? The lowest tax bracket was raised from 10% to 15%. What do you think the deal is for those in some other bracket than the lowest tax bracket?

Oh, no! That’s NOT a 50% tax increase, that’s only 5 pennies per dollar. Look, you make 10,000 whole dollars per year, you can afford an extra $500 tax (you filthy stinkin’ rich money-grubbin’ bastiges). This is only a minor re-write of Two Penny-Jenny’s scheme. Forget the $200,000 soak-the-rich income threshold proclaimed by the media. The new definition of ‘rich’ is anybody with any income whatsoever.

“The Laws passed by Congress should be written in language that the average HighSchool graduate should be able to understand.
They use purposefully obtuse language to build loopholes...”

I'm sure judges will love trying to figure out the intent of bills written in Ebonics and piglatin.

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