Among the dozens of bills whizzing through the House this week under the streamlined "suspension of the rules" process is the Energy Markets Emergency Act. This process is reserved for so-called non-controversial bills. The streamlined process allows no amendments and requires the bill get a 2/3 majority in order to pass.

On the website of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the bill is listed with no bill number on the Thursday, June 26, 2008 floor notice:

ReadtheBill.org today wrote to Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) to thank him for speaking out on the problem of Congress not having time to read bills, and to urge him to cosponsor the best solution -- H.Res. 504. Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, also blogged about the letter. Following is an excerpt:

Blogger Glenn Greenwald focused June 20, 2008 on how little time House members had to read the FISA bill.

UPDATE IV: With less than 24 hours to read -- let alone understand -- what they were voting on, the Democratic-controlled House just passed the "compromise" FISA/telecom amnesty bill by a vote of 293-129. I'll post the link to the roll call when it is available. As always, Republicans supported the bill virtually in lockstep, while Democrats split (105-128). Barack Obama managed not to express a view one way or the other prior to the vote (and still hasn't). Nancy Pelosi spoke in favor of the bill, so the whole top layer of House Democratic leadership supported the bill.

ReadtheBill.org believes that House Democrats are slipping into some of the same bad habits for which they justifiably criticized the 1995-2006 House Republican majority.

On June 19, 2008 Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) engaged in a twitter dialogue with Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller. Kudos to Ellen for asking Rep. Culberson to cosponsor H.Res. 504. Sponsored by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), it would require bills and conference reports to be posted online for 72 hours before House floor debate began.

Here is an excerpt (latest tweets at the top):

EllnMllr @johnculberson Support Rep Baird’s H. Res 504. http://tinyurl.com/583dkr There are 13 bipartisan co-sponsors. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to johnculberson

johnculberson @EllnMllr I am also going to ask my Repub colleagues to support 72 hr rule about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

Johnculberson @EllnMllr Right now is a perfect example of how desperately America needs you and others through the Internet to shine sunlight on Congress about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Please eblast your members your followers and let them know their Congressmen are being asked to approve $185 Bill in War spending about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr in a floor vote before 6pm on a 184 pg $185 b bill that was written at 2:37pm and filed publicly about the same time - outrage! about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

ReadtheBill.org has followed up with Rep. Culberson's staff about H.Res. 504. No word yet if his office is interested. If you are a constituent, please contact him. H.Res. 504 is the best solution proposed to the problem he highlights.

Urge your Representative to cosponsor H.Res. 504

Is your member a cosponsor?

The top legislative priority for ReadtheBill.org is to get more cosponsors for H.Res. 504. Authored by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), it was introduced June 20, 2007 with a bipartisan group of six cosponsors, and now has more.

H.Res. 504 would establish the 72 hours online rule. This resolution would require posting legislation and conference reports on the Internet for 72 hours before floor consideration.

H.Res. 504 would amend the standing rules of the House to update and strengthen the existing three-day rule in the House and close various loopholes. It would replace the obsolete, unenforceable, routinely-waived three-day rule it with the modern, tough, enforceable 72 hour online rule. Unlike the three-day rule, the 72 hours online rule would apply even in the final week of a congressional session, when the worst abuses occur.

Summary of Provisions (HTML) -- MS Word version
Full text of the resolution and other info (on the Library of Congress THOMAS system)
Standing Rules of the House of Representatives (What H.Res.504 amends -- see rules XIII & XXII only)

Official list of cosponsors (on the Library of Congress THOMAS system)

Arguments for H.Res. 504
Arguments against H.Res. 504 (and ReadtheBill's counterarguments)