Congress needs Reading 101

According to a recent cbsnews.com article headline, the network has suddenly discovered a startling concept: "Will Congress Read Bills Before Voting?"

Understand, CBS isn't actually advocating that our Congresscrats do any such thing. They are simply reporting that "Various grassroots organizations" are complaining that Congress isn't taking the time to properly consider the energy bill or health care reform.

The Lawmuckers themselves apparently think the idea of actually reading bills is so hilarious that they – pick your word - cynically, mockingly, sarcastically, derisively, arrogantly, cavalierly, smartassedly hired a professional speed reader to read the bill aloud.

One of the "Various grassroots organizations" mentioned in the article is Let Freedom Ring, described as a non-profit organization with a conservative agenda. Their declared game plan is to urge the politicians to sign a pledge to read any health care legislation before voting on it.

But a pledge is just another name for a promise, and pols throw promises around like confetti at a nominating convention. Getting them to keep those pledges even if they do sign them is, to put it politely, problematic, so good luck with that.

The Sunlight Foundation, another non-profit, concentrates on increasing government transparency. They complain that the energy bill wasn't developed in an open committee so nobody knows how the bill was actually created.

The idea, apparently, is that if a bright light will send cockroaches scuttling for cover then the bright glare of sunlight will make the political classes do the right thing so they won't have to scuttle.

Their approach is to support a law that requires all non-emergency legislation to be posted online for 72 hours before debate begins.

Nice idea, but merely posting a bill doesn't force anyone to actually read a bill, so good luck with that too.

Another non-profit group not mentioned by the CBS article is Downsize DC.

Officially nonpartisan, the group was launched by four former members of the Libertarian Party. These folks took a proactive approach.

First, in 2005, they created the Read The Bills Act:

The RTBA requires, among other detailed specifics, that everyone who parks butt in a House or Senate seat must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that they will completely read every bill before voting on it. Also, every such bill must be posted on the internet for a week before the vote, and that Congress must give public notice of the date the bill will be voted on.

Then they created a campaign:

The first step was to send copies of RTBA to every Rep and Senator in DC asking them to sponsor it and work for its passage.

(So far, everybody is aware of the bill but nobody has gutted up to sponsor it.)

Then they got the public involved. They began recruiting thousands of "Downsizers" to lobby congress to support the bill. These Downsizers, essentially armchair activists who know the answer to the question "what can one person do?" are invited to bombard their congresscrats from the comfort of their own computers with emails and phone calls. At this writing, the Downsize DC Army stands at over 26,000 cohorts and they've bombed congress with 164,880 messages in support of RTBA.

Then they launched the RTBA Coalition:

Writers, bloggers, webmasters, heads of web-based organizations and talk show hosts were invited to plaster their online places with RTBA link banners and membership buttons and web ads. The objective is to "apply unrelenting, inescapable, mind-numbing pressure on Congress to pass the Read the Bills Act."

Says Cofounder and President Jim Babka in a personal communiqué, "We expect that we’ll need an army so large that Congress cannot afford to ignore us, and that this army will have to pound Congress with advertising, phone calls, personal visits, and public displays that compel the members of Congress to eventually submit to the public will and demand."

And then they went public:

They run targeted radio ads, engage in internet networking and conduct media interviews. Babka has hosted the Downsize DC Conference Call network radio show and guest-hosted others, and makes himself available for media interviews.

So while some conservatives and, unmentioned by the CBS article, presumably some liberals support the idea that the folks they send to Washington ought to actually read the bills they vote for, it takes a horde of individualistic libertarians working voluntarily in concert to pressure the pols into actually doing it.

Maybe someday it'll happen. Then we can all get back to our real lives. That, or get on with pushing the many other campaigns the Downsizers have in the works.

The Downsize DC website, where you can help make Congress read every word of every bill they create before they vote on it. After all, it's our Congress, not theirs.