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3/21/13, "GOP Leaders Again Break Pledge to Post Bills 72 Hrs Before Vote: Pass 574-Page Senate CR," CNS News, T. Jeffrey
"The House Republican leadership on Thursday again violated a pledge
they made to the nation back in 2010 that if they regained control of
the House of Representatives they would put “all pieces of legislation”
online for at least 72 hours before bringing them up for a vote.
On Wednesday at 4:29 p.m., the Senate passed a 574-page continuing resolution that will fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2013....
There was no need to rush this 574-page piece of legislation to a vote
this morning because the current continuing resolution, under which the
government is being funded, runs through March 27--six days from now.
There was plenty of time for the Republicans to fulfill their pledge and
let Americans read and discuss this bill for at least 72 hours before
they took it up for a vote....
Back on Sept. 23, 2010, when House Republican leaders were reaching
out to the Tea Party movement in hopes of winning back control of
Congress in that year’s midterm elections, they released a document they
called “A Pledge to America.”
“We will govern differently than past Congresses of both parties,”
said this Republican pledge. “We will require that every bill contain a
citation of Constitutional authority. We will give all Representatives
and citizens at least three days to read the bill before a vote.”
At the event the Republican leaders staged for release of “A Pledge
to America,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R.-Utah) stood with then-House
Minority Leader John Boehner, then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor and
then-Deputy Minority Whip Kevin McCarthy and explained that this
language meant the Republicans were promising to the nation that they
would post all pieces of legislation online for “at least 72 hours.”
“We are taking a pledge today to do a number of things,” said
Chaffetz. “It starts with all pieces of legislation be available online
for 72 hours--at least 72 hours--so that the public has a chance to
review the legislation and so that members of Congress can actually read
the bill.”
McCarthy, who is now the House Republican Whip, went on national
television twice and reiterated that the Republicans were pledging to
America to post legislation online for 72 hours before voting on it....
After the Republicans did win back control of the House in the 2010
election, Speaker-to-be John Boehner released an op-ed on Nov. 12, 2010,
highlighting his and his party’s pledge to post bills online for 72
hours before voting on them.
“We will make it easier to cut spending, require bills to be
published publicly for 72 hours before Congress votes, and end the
practice of using 'comprehensive' bills to lump together issues that
have nothing to do with each other,” wrote Boehner.
Back on March 6, when the House Republican leaders called a vote on
their version of the CR, they also broke their “Pledge to America” to
post bills online for at least 72 hours.
As CNSNews.com reported at the time, the text of that 269-page
version of the bill was posted at 2:21 p.m. on Monday, March 4 and voted
on at 2:03 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6.
This final Senate-approved 574-page version of the CR was approved by
the House 318 to 109 in a vote held at 10:54 a.m. today, the morning
after the Senate voted on it and the final Senate text was made
available online by the House Rules Committee.
Only 27 House Republicans voted against the Senate version of the CR." via MichaelSavage.com
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