Rafael DeGennaro, founder and president of ReadTheBill.org (an early Sunlight grantee) has picked up on twittering between Rep. John Culberson and myself regarding the need for legislation to be posted on line in advance of consideration for 72 hours. Because faxes — what Raf sent to Culberson’s office — are such a pre-Web way of communicating, I thought I’d post the whole letter to Rep. Culberson here, and tweet it too.

If you think this is a good idea, call your own representative  and ask them to support H.Res. 504 too.

The Honorable John Culberson

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

BY FAX

RE: H.Res. 504 as solution to unread bills

Dear Representative Culberson:

I noted with enthusiasm your recent twittering with Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, about the continuing problem of members and the public not having time to read bills before floor debate. I spoke briefly on the phone about this two weeks ago with Lindsay Smith of your staff, and tried to follow up with her again this week. Thank you for speaking up about this problem. We agree with you that this practice must end.

As you know, clause 4 of House rule XIII (legislation) and clause 8 of rule XXII (conference reports) contain the current three day rule. Under both Republican and Democratic House majorities the three day rule has been routinely waived by waiving “all points of order”. Often this is done for the mere convenience of committees that have failed to produce timely legislation that can bear scrutiny. Recent examples include the Farm Bill, Iraq supplemental and FISA bill. But there are many other instances over recent decades. For example, my organization released a report in October 2007 showing that no human could possibly have read 13 of 14 omnibus appropriations bills passed under both Democratic and Republican congressional majorities and presidents during 1982- 2004. Another particularly egregious example was the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, the largest entitlement expansion in a generation.

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