Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic congressional leadership have engaged in an all-out strategy to ram through Congress legislation designed to remake America without time for public debate or even for members of Congress to read the legislation they are voting on.

From the failed “economic stimulus” bill to the cap-and-trade energy tax to bailouts of the auto and financial industries to government-run healthcare legislation, Speaker Pelosi is refusing to give members of Congress and the public time to read the final versions of legislation – let alone debate it.

This “trust me, vote now and read it later” approach effectively turns Congress into a rubber stamp for President Obama’s policies and gives Speaker Pelosi and her fellow liberal lawmakers almost unlimited power.

That is why CCAGW has joined 182 members of Congress in fighting for vote on H. Res. 554, which would change the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives to require Speaker Pelosi to post, without exception, all final versions of legislation on the Internet at least 72 hours before holding a vote.

Here is just one example of why this 72-hour review period is so important.

At approximately 2:45 a.m. on the day the House passed the wildly expensive cap-and-trade energy tax, the liberal leadership of the House mysteriously added a whopping 300-page amendment to the legislation. Congress had spent weeks crafting the bill, and this massive amendment contained new and radical provisions.

One of the worst of the wee-hours-of-the-morning provisions requires you to receive permission from the Environmental Protection Agency in order to sell your home.

Unbelievable, but true! The EPA will review the energy efficiency of your appliances, windows, roof, furnace, air conditioning, and walls to determine if you meet their standards for private homes. If they do not approve of your home, you will be required to make changes, regardless of the cost, before you can sell.

CCAGW is fighting tooth-and-nail to keep this outrageous, authoritarian provision out of the Senate version of cap-and-trade legislation, which is not expected to come up for a vote until next year.

However, we can prevent more radical policies like this EPA home-sale approval requirement RIGHT NOW by stopping Speaker Pelosi and her left-wing minions from being able to call for votes on legislation without time for members of Congress, the public, and policy experts like CCAGW to review the details of a bill.

Not surprisingly, Speaker Pelosi and the ultra-liberal House leadership are blocking vote on H. Res. 554 by bottling it up in the Rules Committee and refusing to let it come to the House floor.

The only way to force a vote on H. Res. 554 is for 218 members of Congress to sign what is known as a Discharge Petition requiring that the 72-hour rule change come to the House floor.

Concerned Taxpayer, as someone who has counted votes in Washington for decades, I can tell you that if this rule change is put to a vote on the House floor an overwhelming number of members of Congress will vote for it – because more than 80 percent of the American people support having all legislation posted on the Internet for 72 hours before a final vote.

Speaker Pelosi’s only chance to block the public and members of Congress from reading and discussing legislation before it becomes law is if she can stop the Discharge Petition from gaining 218 signatures.

As I send you this e-mail, 182 members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have stepped forward to sign the Discharge Petition.

We need just 36 more.

And we have more than enough top targets whom we are heavily lobbying. For example, 24 Representatives co-sponsored vote on H. Res. 554 but have yet to sign the Discharge Petition due to pressure from Speaker Pelosi.

Concerned Taxpayer, we can win these 24 signatures and reach the 218 required, but we urgently need your help.

We must demonstrate in the most concrete manner possible that not only are Americans solidly behind the posting of all legislation on the Internet for at least 72 hours, but that taxpayers are willing to fight for this new rule.

That is why I need you to sign on to the very same Discharge Petition that we are urging members of Congress to sign. We will tabulate your signature, along with the tens of thousands of others, and publicize the results to the members of Congress whose support we are lobbying to secure.

Please, before you do anything else today, take a moment to sign on to the Discharge Petition for H. Res. 554.

Related Reading:

Don't read that bill.($787 billion economic stimulus bill )(Column): An article from: National Catholic ReporterThis digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by National Catholic Reporter on March 6, 2009. The length of the article is 583 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Don't read that bill.($787 billion economic stimulus bill )(Column)
Author: Joe Feuerherd
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 6, 2009
Publisher: National Catholic Reporter
Volume: 45 Issue: 10 Page: 28(1)

Article Type: Column

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American PoliticsWhen the Democrats retook control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2007 after twelve years in the wilderness, Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker in American history.

In Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics, Ron Peters, one of America's leading scholars of Congress, and Cindy Simon Rosenthal, one of America's leading scholars on women and political leadership, provide a comprehensive account of how Pelosi became speaker and what this tells us about Congress in the twenty-first century. They consider the key issues that Pelosi's rise presents for American politics, highlight the core themes that have shaped, and continue to shape, her remarkable caree, and discuss the challenges that women face in the male-dominated world of American politics, particularly at its highest levels. The authors also shed light on Pelosi's political background: first as the scion of a powerful Baltimore political family whose power base lay in East Coast urban ethnic politics, and later as a successful politician in what is probably the most liberal city in the country, San Francisco. Peters and Rosenthal trace how she built her base within the House Democratic Caucus and ultimately consolidated enough power to win the Speakership. They show how twelve years out of power allowed her to fashion a new image for House Democrats, and they conclude with an analysis of her institutional leadership style.

The only full-length portrait of Nancy Pelosi in print, this superb volume offers a vivid and insightful analysis of one of America's most remarkable politicians.

Cap and Trade and Carbon Credits: An Introduction (4th Edition, Jan 2012)Expanded 4th Edition (January 2012). Over 11,500 words.

The principles of Cap and Trade and Carbon Credit are introduced in these well-researched series of articles focusing on different aspects of the issue as well as the latest developments like the DURBAN SUMMIT.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Cap and Trade?
Issues with Cap-and-Trade
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
State-Level Opposition in USA
“Carbon Tax” – An Alternative?
Carbon Credit Trading is the New "Derivatives" Game
Carbon Credit "Manufacturing" - A New Industrial Growth Sector
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) – The First Three Years
COUNTRY FOCUS – Australia
COUNTRY FOCUS – Canada
COUNTRY FOCUS – China
COUNTRY FOCUS – New Zealand
COUNTRY FOCUS – European Union (EU)
COUNTRY FOCUS – Japan
COUNTRY FOCUS – UAE (United Arab Emirates)
DURBAN SUMMIT
ISSUE FOCUS - EU to Charge All Airlines for Carbon Emissions
ARGUMENT: Why Stop at Carbon Credits?
GLOSSARY
APPENDIX A: Selected Recent Developments
APPENDIX B: Timeline of Important Cap-and-Trade Milestones
APPENDIX C: Support for and Opposition to H.R. 2454
APPENDIX D: Useful Web Sites

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Ideal for those who are new to the topic and would like to have a quick introduction to various Cap and Trade and Carbon Credit issues.

Networks of Champions: Leadership, Access, and Advocacy in the U.S. House of RepresentativesMedia accounts of Congress emphasize conflict and the failure of Congress to enact legislation. Rarely do we see accounts of the successful efforts of members of Congress and outside advocacy groups to pass legislation dealing with important and controversial issues.
In Networks of Champions Christine A. DeGregorio identifies who in the U.S. House of Representatives took the lead in shepherding six major bills, dealing with welfare reform, drug control, international trade, farm policy, nuclear weapons testing, and assistance to the Contras, through Congress and how these champions of legislation worked with outside advocacy groups. DeGregorio finds that the champions of this legislation were drawn from a diverse group that included individuals both within and outside the formal hierarchy of leadership. The champions, who were not necessarily the prominent holders of important positions, are characterized by having knowledge of the subject matter, experience in the House, a facility for bargaining and compromise, the right committee assignments, and a commitment to hard work.
DeGregorio traces how these groups become influential and how the groups affect the policy-making process. She finds a reciprocal process in which advocacy groups use champions to express their views while champions use the resources of advocacy groups to gain influence in the House.
Based on extensive interviews with key congressional staff members and the leaders of advocacy groups, DeGregorio provides critical new insights into the legislative process. This book will be of interest to those who study the legislative process and the role of interest groups in making American policy.
". . . a substantial contribution to our understanding of advocacy in Congress." --Barbara Sinclair, University of California, Los Angeles
Christine A. DeGregorio is Associate Professor, Department of Government, School of Public Affairs, American University.

Monetary Madness: Uncle Sam's Spending Scams (Waste Watch Journal 1992) [VHS]