Read the bill! Is that too much to ask?

A while back we blogged about the passage of the stimulus act which was not read by anyone in congress because it would have impossible to read it given its size and the time allowed for it to be reviewed. Well, the Sunlight Foundation is back supporting HR 554 which would require 72 hours for legislation to be considered before congress.

By introducing House Resolution 554, the bipartisan sponsors Reps. Baird (D-WA) and Culberson (R-TX) have taken us one step closer toward greater transparency, and given us a chance to improve the dialogue between members of Congress and the people who elected them.

What happens when there is no time allowed to review bills before the are voted on in congress.

There are many reasons having 72 hours of public notice prior to Congress's consideration of a bill is important, and here are a couple examples we found:

- Most citizens would have supported amending the economic stimulus bill to remove the provision allowing AIG executives to receive retroactive bonuses - if only they had known.

- The average person probably would have preferred to let the judicial system work rather than have Congress give immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies that participated in a controversial wiretapping scheme.

-Workers hoping to retire on their 401(k) investments might have liked to have some serious analysis of whether credit default swaps ought to be regulated. We know how that worked out.

-And, just about everyone benefits from mandating time to check for questionable and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

Want to find out more? Go to www.readthebill.org and check out the endorsements and sign the petition. It will be worth your time.

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