Should Congress Read the Bills or Pass Pointless Resolutions?
James Wilson
Quote of the Day: "If I studied all my life, I couldn't think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress.” - Will Rogers
Subject: Should Congress read the bills or pass pointless resolutions?
In addition to bills that become law, the House and Senate also pass hundreds of resolutions each year. Many of them are statements of appreciation or recognition of people and events. They may seem harmless, but they waste Congress's time, time that could be spent reading bills that actually matter.
Moreover, these resolutions are often handled with comic incompetence . . .
- On May 19, the House recognized "Women's Health Week," which had ended on May 16
- On the same day, it also honored "Police Week," which likewise had ended the previous Saturday
- On May 20, the House recognized "National Teacher Appreciation Week," which had ended on May 10
- Four months after he announced his retirement, the House congratulated football coach Tony Dungy
The House also passed a resolution urging every American to visit national cemeteries, memorials, and markers on Memorial Day. They even bothered to call for a roll call vote, as if anyone would dare oppose it.
They also passed a resolution recognizing May 25 as National Missing Children's Day and urged us to "plan events in communities across America to raise public awareness about the issue." They again took the time for a roll call vote.
May 25, of course, was also Memorial Day. If Congress was at all sincere with either resolution, they would have seen the unfairness to both missing children and America's war dead by having them compete for attention on the same day.
By merging such special days together, and recognizing events well after the fact, Congress ends up trivializing what they are supposed to be honoring.
The House also held pointless time-consuming roll call votes recognizing at least four other anniversaries of various events. (My favorite celebrated the IEEE, without bothering to mention what the acronym stands for.) In any case, none of them needed Congressional recognition to establish their significance.
Meanwhile, over the past three weeks the House passed 25 bills totaling 1466 pages - bills that will actually impact our lives. Members of Congress claim they don't have time to read these bills.
We'll believe it when we see it. Rep. Paul Broun, for one, obviously has time on his hands. He wants to pass a resolution urging the President to declare 2010 the "Year of the Bible" and is busy looking for more co-sponsors.
The Bible's significance cannot be enhanced nor diminished by a Congressional resolution. We think Rep. Broun's time should be spent reading bills he supports, rather than working on resolutions that accomplish nothing.
And the same should apply to all Congress. Tell them to introduce and pass the Read the Bills Act.
In your personal comments, tell them . ..
- That as the week of May 18-21 showed, many resolutions are mishandled and therefore trivialized.
- You would rather Congress spend its time reading important legislation rather than writing and passing non-binding resolutions.
- It is very important to the American people that Congress knows the contents of the meaningful legislation it passes.
Our goal this month is to pound Congress with more than 31,730 messages. That means we must hit Congress with 966 messages today.
We also invite you add your website or blog to the Read the Bills Coalition. By becoming a member, you will help spread awareness of the Read the Bills Act, and in return your site will be listed on our main page and mentioned in a Dispatch reaching over 25,000 subscribers. Details for joining are here.
This week we welcome two new members to the Coalition:
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how much we're growing please check out the Keeping Score after my signature.
James Wilson
Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org
P.S. To see the list of bills and number of pages of legislation Congress passed May 5-21, please see the blog version of this Dispatch.
Keeping Score
Well, our growth resumed yesterday, if only by 1 net new member. That brings us to 1,025 net new members for the year, and the Downsize DC Army now stands at 25,374 -- 37% of the way to 26,000!
We can also grow faster by doing more outreach to potential DC Downsizers. If you can start a monthly credit card pledge to expand our outreach please tell us on the secure contribution form if its okay to publish your name here . . .
NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN MAY: Don Matesz, Silvy Berman, David Jones, Barbara Baxter, Nancy Kovar, Ryan Ackroyd, WM Michael O'Brien, John C Houghton, James Alan Speedie, THREE unlisted
NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN MAY: Arlene Lindstrand, Dee Clary, Joan Garro, Jennifer Tarling, Richard Linchitz, Steven Palmer, Bruce N. Liddel, Ernest P. Eusea, Chris Reulman, David Anthony, Christopher T Wagner, Thomas Sartwelle, Jr, EIGHT unlisted
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