Keorythe
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2008
- Messages
- 440
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- Location
- Texas
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
So in general if you read an 1100 page bill, and small parts of it is changed, and which parts changed is mentioned in a side document(normal routine), then you go ahead and re-read the whole 1100 pages, instead of reading the parts that has changed or the chapters those parts belong to?
Sections are listed as "amended" and content is listed and found under the annex. But chapters and specific paragraphs are not. This is a bill, not an affidavit or court order so the amended details are not meant to be specific and require complete reading (that statement scares me). That means trying to find them by hand and reading through everything to make sure that specific wording does not allow for extra provisions, etc. Usually this is given in Word format which allows for easy searching. Unfortunately, this time around the documents were in .PDF format which makes computer searching impossible.
U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Legislative Process > Senate Legislative Process - Prime example. Here's two quoted paragraphs out of 11 pages. Go find them.When a committee concludes its markup, any committee member may move to order the measure reported to the Senate. A committee has several options for the form in which the a measure is ordered reported. It may be reported with no changes, with amendments to various sections adopted in markup, or with one amendment in the nature of a substitute. In addition, a Senate committee is authorized to report an original bill that embodies a text decided upon in markup.
When a committee reports a measure, it generally prepares an accompanying written report that describes the purposes and provisions of the measure (note the measure itself ie. the bill). If a report is submitted, Senate rules and statutes require the inclusion of such components as records of roll-call votes cast in committee, cost estimates, a statement of regulatory impact, and the specific changes the legislation would make to existing law. Committee members are also entitled to at least three days to prepare supplementary, minority, or additional views for inclusion in the report.
So now you have to do your research and confirm interpretations within 12hrs after release. Thats a whole lot of coffee right there.
In short, this was a poor example of transparency thats going to bite the Dems in the butt. The media is going to have to go into overtime to cover them in the future. I can only hope that the recovery which should have taken roughly 2 years won't be stalled or prolonged by this bill. Although I get the feeling that politicians will milk the "doom and gloom" for a while.
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