MicroBalrog
New member
J. Daniel Cloud
LP News Editor Jan 1, 2006
Can we get legislators to 'Read the Bills'?
The May 2005 issue of LP News featured an article by Jim Babka, president of Downsize DC, in which he talked about his organization's proposed "Read the Bills Act of 2005."
This legislation, if approved, would require members of Congress to read each bill before voting, ensuring that new laws aren't often passed, Babka stated.
"Most members of the House of Representatives and the Senate barely read any portion of bills they pass, much less every word of every bill," he continued. "That's why we have created the Read the Bills Act, to fix this problem."
According to the act, all members of the House and Senate would have to sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, saying they have read the complete bill on which they are voting.
This would apply also to every part of any current law to be amended, and to any old law coming up for renewal because of sunset provisions.
Several months have passed, and Downsize DC has been seeking a member of Congress to introduce the legislation.
That search is apparently over.
Babka reports he has found a legislator who will sponsor the Read the Bills Act in 2006, so those who sit on Capitol Hill could soon be faced with legislation that they'll have trouble voting down.
It's a two-pronged attack: If legislators vote to approve the bill, they will be required to read legislation thoroughly. Under this restriction a host of onerous — and massively expensive — bills would never have been approved. On the other hand, if members of the House and Senate choose instead to vote against the act, they will be admitting that they don't read legislation before voting on it and that they have no intention of doing so.
While it should be obvious to any reasonably intelligent person that legislators currently do not read the bills they approve, many Americans simply don't think about whether their representatives are actually representing them.
As Congressman Brian Baird (D-Wash.) wrote in the Washington Post in early 2005, members of the 108th Congress approved "the Medicare prescription drug bill, the energy bill, the intelligence bill and the defense authorization bill," and chances are they didn't read any of them.
"These important pieces of legislation total more than 2,900 pages of text and authorize more than $1 trillion of spending," Baird continued. "Yet, collectively, they were available to members for less than 48 hours total for reading" before being voted upon.
The battle isn't over yet, not by a long shot.
While a congressman has been found to sponsor the Read the Bills Act in 2006, "details have not been finalized and I cannot share the name," Babka said, noting that he hopes to reveal the legislation's sponsor soon.
In September, Babka and others with Downsize DC met with one senator, one House representative, one chief of staff and several legislative aides in hopes of finding a sponsor for the bill. Babka is planning to take another group of activists to meet with Capitol Hill staffers and congressmen in February, helping the proposal along.
Reinforcing the bill's appeal will be the fact that Downsize DC has succeeded in having more than 23,000 messages sent to congressmen regarding this one issue, and the number is growing.
Downsize DC is actually two separate endeavors: The Downsize DC Foundation and DownsizeDC.org.
The foundation started out as the American Liberty Foundation in December 2000, while DownsizeDC.org began as RealCampaignReform.org. Babka became president of the effort in September 2001. The original organizations were replaced in 2004 with Downsize DC, but not before RealCampaignReform.org took a campaign finance suit to the Supreme Court.
In addition to DownsizeDC.org, Babka oversees DownsizeDC.com, a Web site for the foundation.
This separate site is dedicated to "educating liberty-minded people about how to bring about social and political change," Babka said.
"We're trying to offer something in small snippets every day. We really do want people to see that downsizing D.C. leads to human progress."
This positive commentary is beneficial because "the libertarian movement has a lot of Chicken Little mentality, saying 'The sky is falling,' and there's some truth to that," he said. "But we often forget the good news, that while Big Government hurts, liberty works."
How does Downsize DC get its message to Congress? When someone fills out a petition on the site, the computer system automatically fills out forms at the appropriate legislator's Web site — whether it's one or two senators or a representative or all three.
The Read the Bills Act isn't the organization's sole project.
"We're constantly dealing with whatever's in the news, the lighting rod issues," Babka said. "We've sent more than 203,000 messages to Congress, from more than 10,000 people."
Most of Downsize DC's activities have a "decided civil liberties bent," he added.
"For example, issues we've tackled include the PATRIOT Act (29,000-plus messages); the Real ID Act; protecting the Internet from campaign finance regulation; and many others."
"When Congress is in session, they're doing a lot of damage," Babka said. "When they're in session, we send out about three or four messages a week. We need to keep activity growing. The objective is to keep pressure on Congress."
Like others in the freedom movement, Downsize DC's goal is "to build a big parade," Babka said. "We want people everywhere, everyday, to be exposed to the idea that government should be smaller."
Which sounds like the freedom movement as a whole: As we get bigger, more and more people should be gaining awareness of the benefits of small government.
What distinguishes Downsize DC from other libertarian-minded groups?
"The key thing that distinguishes Downsize DC from other libertarian groups is that we are guided by a direction, not a destination," he said.
"If small government is represented by San Francisco and our current, Big Government state of affairs has us symbolically in Boston, we want to get on the Freedom Train and head in the direction of San Francisco.
"Not everyone is going to want to ride the train all the way to San Francisco. But by associating with us, reading the things we're saying everyday and seeing the intellectual consistency behind the freedom movement, many people will want to ride the train further, perhaps even to San Francisco," he said.
- Published in the January 2006 issue of LP News -
LP News Editor Jan 1, 2006
Can we get legislators to 'Read the Bills'?
The May 2005 issue of LP News featured an article by Jim Babka, president of Downsize DC, in which he talked about his organization's proposed "Read the Bills Act of 2005."
This legislation, if approved, would require members of Congress to read each bill before voting, ensuring that new laws aren't often passed, Babka stated.
"Most members of the House of Representatives and the Senate barely read any portion of bills they pass, much less every word of every bill," he continued. "That's why we have created the Read the Bills Act, to fix this problem."
According to the act, all members of the House and Senate would have to sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, saying they have read the complete bill on which they are voting.
This would apply also to every part of any current law to be amended, and to any old law coming up for renewal because of sunset provisions.
Several months have passed, and Downsize DC has been seeking a member of Congress to introduce the legislation.
That search is apparently over.
Babka reports he has found a legislator who will sponsor the Read the Bills Act in 2006, so those who sit on Capitol Hill could soon be faced with legislation that they'll have trouble voting down.
It's a two-pronged attack: If legislators vote to approve the bill, they will be required to read legislation thoroughly. Under this restriction a host of onerous — and massively expensive — bills would never have been approved. On the other hand, if members of the House and Senate choose instead to vote against the act, they will be admitting that they don't read legislation before voting on it and that they have no intention of doing so.
While it should be obvious to any reasonably intelligent person that legislators currently do not read the bills they approve, many Americans simply don't think about whether their representatives are actually representing them.
As Congressman Brian Baird (D-Wash.) wrote in the Washington Post in early 2005, members of the 108th Congress approved "the Medicare prescription drug bill, the energy bill, the intelligence bill and the defense authorization bill," and chances are they didn't read any of them.
"These important pieces of legislation total more than 2,900 pages of text and authorize more than $1 trillion of spending," Baird continued. "Yet, collectively, they were available to members for less than 48 hours total for reading" before being voted upon.
The battle isn't over yet, not by a long shot.
While a congressman has been found to sponsor the Read the Bills Act in 2006, "details have not been finalized and I cannot share the name," Babka said, noting that he hopes to reveal the legislation's sponsor soon.
In September, Babka and others with Downsize DC met with one senator, one House representative, one chief of staff and several legislative aides in hopes of finding a sponsor for the bill. Babka is planning to take another group of activists to meet with Capitol Hill staffers and congressmen in February, helping the proposal along.
Reinforcing the bill's appeal will be the fact that Downsize DC has succeeded in having more than 23,000 messages sent to congressmen regarding this one issue, and the number is growing.
Downsize DC is actually two separate endeavors: The Downsize DC Foundation and DownsizeDC.org.
The foundation started out as the American Liberty Foundation in December 2000, while DownsizeDC.org began as RealCampaignReform.org. Babka became president of the effort in September 2001. The original organizations were replaced in 2004 with Downsize DC, but not before RealCampaignReform.org took a campaign finance suit to the Supreme Court.
In addition to DownsizeDC.org, Babka oversees DownsizeDC.com, a Web site for the foundation.
This separate site is dedicated to "educating liberty-minded people about how to bring about social and political change," Babka said.
"We're trying to offer something in small snippets every day. We really do want people to see that downsizing D.C. leads to human progress."
This positive commentary is beneficial because "the libertarian movement has a lot of Chicken Little mentality, saying 'The sky is falling,' and there's some truth to that," he said. "But we often forget the good news, that while Big Government hurts, liberty works."
How does Downsize DC get its message to Congress? When someone fills out a petition on the site, the computer system automatically fills out forms at the appropriate legislator's Web site — whether it's one or two senators or a representative or all three.
The Read the Bills Act isn't the organization's sole project.
"We're constantly dealing with whatever's in the news, the lighting rod issues," Babka said. "We've sent more than 203,000 messages to Congress, from more than 10,000 people."
Most of Downsize DC's activities have a "decided civil liberties bent," he added.
"For example, issues we've tackled include the PATRIOT Act (29,000-plus messages); the Real ID Act; protecting the Internet from campaign finance regulation; and many others."
"When Congress is in session, they're doing a lot of damage," Babka said. "When they're in session, we send out about three or four messages a week. We need to keep activity growing. The objective is to keep pressure on Congress."
Like others in the freedom movement, Downsize DC's goal is "to build a big parade," Babka said. "We want people everywhere, everyday, to be exposed to the idea that government should be smaller."
Which sounds like the freedom movement as a whole: As we get bigger, more and more people should be gaining awareness of the benefits of small government.
What distinguishes Downsize DC from other libertarian-minded groups?
"The key thing that distinguishes Downsize DC from other libertarian groups is that we are guided by a direction, not a destination," he said.
"If small government is represented by San Francisco and our current, Big Government state of affairs has us symbolically in Boston, we want to get on the Freedom Train and head in the direction of San Francisco.
"Not everyone is going to want to ride the train all the way to San Francisco. But by associating with us, reading the things we're saying everyday and seeing the intellectual consistency behind the freedom movement, many people will want to ride the train further, perhaps even to San Francisco," he said.
- Published in the January 2006 issue of LP News -
