In 2006, the Speaker of the House pledged that she would run the “most honest, ethical and open Congress, ever.”
In 2009, the story is far different. Instead of transparency, the Speaker has ushered in a new era of shadows. At the beginning of this Congress, the Democrats passed a new rules package that severely restricts the amendments and motions Republican members can offer when debating legislation. And, the amount of time allowed by Democrats to review important legislation has shrunken from days to mere hours.
This represents a pattern of behavior that stifles democracy. The checks and balances in Congress were put in place to prevent a tyranny of the majority. Unfortunately, the Democrats have abused their authority and continue to make it more difficult for the voice of the minority to be heard.
The health care reform debate is a prime example. The Democrats’ 2,000-page bill, which according to a recent Rasmussen poll 54 percent of Americans oppose, was produced behind closed doors.
My House Republican colleagues and I think that the solution to out of control government growth and spending is more, not less, transparency. After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
The House Republican Transparency Initiative seeks to expose back door deals and prevent Democrats from ramming legislation through against the will of the people. To achieve this, I have co-sponsored the following legislation:
Read the Bill
H. Res. 554 will change the House rules to make it out of order to consider a measure until 72 hours after its text has been made available to members and the general public. And it will require that the full text of the legislation and each committee report to be posted online.
Ban ‘phantom amendments’
H. Res. 835 will shed light on the committee amendment process by forcing House committees to make the text of any measure under their consideration publicly available within 24 hours of meeting.
Show the votes
H. Res. 874 will make Members’ committee votes publicly available online within 48 hours.
Open health care
negotiations to the public
Health care reform is one of the largest public policy reforms taken up by Congress in generations and will affect the lives of all Americans.
H. Res. 847 will open to the public any conference committee or other meetings held to discuss the content of national health care legislation.
House rules currently allow conference committees to hold closed-door meetings that exclude the public and media. Even The New York Times has reported on the disturbing trend of House Democrat leadership to allow small groups of conference committee members to meet privately. And ABC News reported earlier this year that the $1 trillion stimulus bill was passed after “closed-door negotiations.”
Bring sunlight to the Rules Committee
H. Res. 869 will allow cameras into the secretive House Rules Committee, which decides which bills come to a vote. Then the American people can see how Democrats prevent votes on Republican health care and energy bills, to name a few.
As President Lincoln said, ours is “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” If the people are shut out from the business of Congress, then we have lost our government. I am determined not to let that happen.
— Congressman Lamar Smith