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  • Lawmakers Actually Sit Down to Read the Bill

    By Paul Blumenthal on 07/28/09 @ 10:38 am | 4 Comments

    In light of Rep. John Conyers’ statement that I posted about yesterday, I’m glad to see that other lawmakers are actually reading the bill and studying its various sections:

    They were all House Democrats, boning up on the historic and controversial health-care reform legislation that’s gradually emerging from their chamber. The rough draft of the bill (“America’s Health Choices Act”) runs more than 1,000 pages, with amendments yet to come. Last week the Democrats decided that they needed to know more about the legislation before they go back to their constituents for the August recess. Hence the teach-in, an unusual basement seminar that lasted five hours with one break for procedural votes on the House floor.

    Staffers led the members through the bill section by section — from Division A, Title I, Subtitle A, Section 101 all the way through Division C, Title V, Subtitle D, Section 2531.

    “No one’s going to say we haven’t read the bill,” said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat, as he took a break from the closed-door gathering.

    Now, we just to need to make sure that the final version is available for everyone else to read in time. Go to ReadTheBill.org to show your support.

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    • 4 Comments on Lawmakers Actually Sit Down to Read the Bill
    • cynthia ryan said:

      Paul

      Excellent !
      too many neo-con/libertarian emails being sent around with bogus ‘the bill says this’ and the bill will ‘do that awful thing’.
      I took one such email apart on my blog post for yesterday.
      we’ve got to stay ahead of the bogus information machine.

      CR

      1:03 pm on Jul 28, 2009
    • John Wonderlich said:

      This related quote strikes me as robust process defense:

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/house-dems-to-hold-five-h_n_245727.html?view=print

      Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, explained in a statement: “This in-depth look at the bill is another step in our efforts to keep our members informed and educated on this important topic. Democrats in the House have already held 10 Caucus meetings on health care, 79 hearings on health care reform, 550 town hall events in their districts about health care, and three House Committees have heard 45 hours of debate and amendments on our health care reform legislation. The American people have been waiting 75 years for us to get this done.”

      11:56 am on Jul 29, 2009
    • Lotacats said:

      Letting us read it as well and breaking it down in a lanquage we can understand goes a long way. No rushing and give us time to digest it and understand how it effects us as regular folks.

      2:49 pm on Jul 29, 2009
    • Gringa said:

      Lets see… It took President Obama at least 3 months to choose his family dog and at least the same amount of time (or longer) for him to finally attend his first church service in DC (you, know, he had to study the situation carefully) so why the rush in pushing a bill that hasn’t even been read???? I do believe this so called healthcare reform is much more important than choosing a family dog and deserves more time and discussion both from our representatives and from “we the people”.

      3:38 pm on Jul 29, 2009
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