REMINDER: The new website for the Zero Aggression Project is now open. Check it out here. https://www.zeroaggressionproject.org/heuristic/zero-aggression-principle/
The farm bill passed the House last week. The Senate will vote on it TODAY. This prompted me to, once again, tell Congress to pass the Read the Bills Act using DownsizeDC.org’s Campaign.
I urge you to do the same. The hardwired message says…
Co-sponsor the Read the Bills Act (S. 1665).
You may copy or edit these additional comments…
Today, the Senate will vote on the Conference Report to the “Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act” (HR 2642).
It is 949 pages. The House…
* Received it on January 27, and…
* Voted on it January 29.While the great debate raged about making tiny cuts to the food stamp program vs. even tinier cuts, there are dozens of provisions I KNOW that you haven’t read and don’t understand.
That’s because…
* You weren’t given time to read them
* Many of them are revisions or renewals of current laws that you haven’t readThe result is nearly $100 billion ($1,000 per family) in spending every year for the next ten years, taken from we the people mostly to subsidize Big Ag and Big Food.
I DO NOT CONSENT to this “legislation without representation.” After all…
How could you possibly represent me if you didn’t read the bill?
The Read the Bills Act would change this situation. It would FORCE you to represent me by…
* Requiring that YOU read the bills you support
* Requiring final versions of bills be posted online 7 days before a vote on passage, so that I too can have a chance to read and respondIt would also make bills easier to understand: a bill revising a current law must include the relevant current language that will be revised.
The RTBA will encourage you to pass shorter, simpler bills, so that you can better endure the burden of reading them. The likely result?
* Fewer laws and regulations
* Less government spending and smaller deficitsYOU would also benefit. There would be less cynicism and mistrust about Congress. And so…
* If you DISAGREE that you should read the bills, tell me why, but
* If you DO agree Congress should read the bills, sponsor the Read the Bills Act!
—END OF LETTER—
Send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.
In January, the Senate passed ten bills totaling 1,748 pages, and the Housed passed 20 bills totaling 2,643 pages. You can see a listing of the bills with brief summaries on our blog.
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Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
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