Budget Conference Report Rushed Through House

[paineinthearse]

Received by email from Nancy Pelosi



Budget Conference Report Rushed Through House

Republicans forced a budget resolution through the House tonight using martial law procedures that in the past have resulted in embarrassing and controversial amendments being added onto critical bills. Last year, Republicans used martial law to force through a massive 1,645-page omnibus bill with only a few hours for Members to review - leading to egregious violations of taxpayer privacy rights that had to be reversed days later. Today, they are giving the House only a few hours to review a $2 trillion budget resolution that will increase the national debt, slash Medicaid and crucial aid for education and health care, and spend the entire Social Security Trust Fund. Perhaps they allowed so little time for this misguided bill to hide its damaging impact from the American people.

Rushing the Budget Resolution is an abuse of power.

http://democraticleader.ctsg.com/ctt.asp?u=3676799&l=90992

Abuse of Rules and Abuse of Power

The U.S. House of Representatives operates under a set of established rules and guidelines. These rules dictate procedure and ensure that the legislative process is conducted in a fair and unbiased manner. Unfortunately, many of these rules are either being ignored or completely rewritten by the current Republican majority.

In one instance, House Speaker Dennis Hastert held a vote open three hours, from 3 A.M until 6 A.M. in the morning, while party leaders bullied their Members into voting for an expensive and inadequate prescription drug bill. Majority Leader Tom DeLay even offered to trade political support for a vote for the bill, which earned him an admonishment by the House Ethics Committee.

Another example of rules abuse is the practice of rushing through thousands of pages of legislation with only a few hours for Members to review. As a result damaging and controversial provisions - often written in secret with the help of outside special interest groups - are being slipped into bills at the last moment, and Members are not allowed the time to find them before they are forced into an up or down vote without debate. This is exactly what happened with the last Omnibus Appropriations bill. Republican Rep. Istook’s office inserted measures into the 1,645 page bill that violated taxpayer privacy rights. A special session of Congress was forced to meet and reverse the ‘error.’

Republican leaders are also muzzling Floor debate and blocking legitimate Democratic amendments from the floor. Even Republicans have been shut out when they dared to suggest improvements and changes to legislation that didn’t toe the party line.

This abuse of the House rules is subverting the democratic process. When Members are barred from participating in the legislative process, unable to offer amendments and forbidden to engage in debate on the floor of the House, then the Americans they speak for are no longer being represented. At a time when the Republican party claims to be pursuing democracy abroad and overseas, they are undermining it here at home.

[Liberty Belle]

1. Kick! Nominating. Please get this out to the media

and to anyone who might have time to actually READ the budget and find out what unwelcome surprises the GOP snuck in there.

We need a national campaign to urge Republicans and Democrats to stand up against this abuse of power and vote "NO" on any budget bill that they're not given time to read.

[paineinthearse]

2. Thanks for the support.

Maybe others will take time to read this?