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.
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ABC News This Week Nancy Pelosi and Henry PaulsonSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joins George Stephanopoulos to discuss the drama in the Democratic race, the faltering economy and where things stand on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War. Then, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson weighs in on the plummeting dollar, skyrocketing oil prices, and the continued economic downturn. How much should the government do to protect the economy? The roundtable panel includes, The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, ABC News consultant Donna Brazile and ABC News' George Will. Anchor: George StephanopoulosAirdate: 3/16/2008
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