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:

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.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) re-introduced his Sunlight Act on January 4, 2007. The bill contains some tough provisions on a variety of subjects. Unfortunately, it would only require bills to be posted online for 48 hours, which would weaken existing House rules, which require availability for three calendar days.

As of December 19, 2007, H.R. 170 has no cosponsors.

A recent commentary by Joseph Galloway in the McClatchy Washington Bureau slammed Congress for passing a law to extend and expand intelligence surveillance capabilities. Calling it a “cave-in to Bush administration fear-mongering,” Galloway asks: “Did any of our legislators even bother to read the details of this law?”

After Congress adjourned for the August recess, the Washington Post editorialized that the Democratic House majority was falling into the same habit as the previous Republican majority: not allowing "adequate time for members to digest complex legislation."

Rep. Brian N. Baird, D-Wash. (3rd CD), issued the following press release:

As a constant advocate for a transparent and open Congress, Rep. Brian Baird (WA-03) today re-introduced legislation with Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), to ensure that members have adequate time to review and read legislation before being brought up for a vote.

No public official or pundit has publicly argued against H.Res. 504, to the best of our knowledge. Please contact us if you know of any explicit, public statement against H.Res. 504 by a public official, non-profit organization or media pundit so we can post it here and provide counter-arguments.

Following are possible arguments and observations against H.Res. 504:

Citizens cannot understand the legalese in these bills

This is correct. Most citizens (except the most motivated) lack the time, tools and experience to read a complicated piece of legislation and really understand it. Even an experienced congressional staff person who knows the defense bill might be unable to fully understand a bill on Social Security or irrigation policy.

The good news is that there are many experts who can and will read the legislation, and thousands of other Americans who can at least look out for questionable provisions and bring them to the experts' attention. They will sound the alarm if they find bad provisions.

Journalists, bloggers, state and local officials, retired congressional staff, public interest advocates, and interested business people will let everyone else know what they find. Note that the natural rivalries of lobbyists can be very helpful. Bank lobbyists would often watchdog legislation to benefit credit unions, and vice versa. Lobbyists for rival military contractors would often sound the alarm if their competitor sneaks a provision into the defense bill.

They will speak up if Congress is poised to act recklessly. Using the Internet to harness their collective labor and intelligence is the way to keep politicians of all stripes honest.

By the way, there is no one group of experts that everyone trusts. Rather, everyone is free to look to whatever independent expert they respect. Citizens can listen to the expert of their choice and then decide what to think. Of course, interested and motivated citizens may end up reading a few key sentences that are excerpted from a bill and explained by someone they trust.

H.Res. 504

THE PROBLEM: Congress will not read the bills
The world's oldest democracy is endangered when lawmakers routinely do not read proposed laws before they make them. The facts are well known: Congress regularly passes bills that nobody has properly read. Generally, the more important a bill is, the less likely it will be read. This hurts Americans in several ways:

Waste, deficits and corruption -- Outrageous giveaways and ineffective programs escape accountability and bulk up the budget. Big government gets bigger, and the taxpayers end up owing a national debt of $8,000,000,000,000. Lack of scrutiny invites sneaky earmarks and midnight riders that tempt a few members of Congress to plain old corruption.

Half-baked legislation -- Furthermore, unread bills result in half-baked legislation. No wonder the Medicare prescription drug program was such a mess -- nobody read the bill.

The problem is harder to solve because current rules are confusing and obsolete. The House still has a three-day rule rule on the books requiring proposed legislation be available to members for three days. But the House waives this rule routinely. Senate rules are fuzzier but the result is the same. Sometimes the legislation given to the members isn't the final text. Finally, a few committee chairman procrastinate and delay their bills until the final days of the session, then ask the House to waive all the rules in the name of urgency.

These rules will never be enforced. Current rules make legislation available only to members of Congress, so it's an insiders game in which members are under severe pressure. Until the public is reading the bills on the Internet, enforcement of the 72 hours rule will lose to pork barrel favors and partisan politics. Posting the legislation on the Internet makes it much harder to waive the 72 hours rule without a good reason.

THE SOLUTION: "72 Hours Online”
Republican New York Times columnist David Brooks calls this idea "the best reform they could do." Here's how it works:

Practical -- Thousands of business leaders, state and local officials, journalists and interested citizens will read the bills and sound the alarm if they find any shady provisions. Americans can listen, decide for themselves and tell Congress if they are concerned. All floor consideration (not just conference reports) of all regular legislation would be covered -- regular laws, and spending and tax bills. But declarations of war and other special resolutions would be excluded. Even for regular legislation, a two-thirds majority could waive the 72 hours rule when needed in rare cases. Posted text would be the full versions, and the signed versions of conference reports. There would be no exceptions for the end of the session when the worst bills try to rush through.

Enforceable -- With the legislation online, unjustified waivers will be protested by thousands of people, not just a handful of reform-minded members of Congress.

Non-ideological -- This mainstream idea has also been endorsed by ROLL CALL, the local newspaper of Congress. Libertarians like it. Progressives like it. The sunshine will scare off many crooked lobbyists and protect politicians against the temptation of corruption.

Inevitable -- Americans do almost everything else on the Internet -- buy mutual funds, plan weddings and run businesses. Why shouldn't America's democracy be modernized a little so that citizens can see proposed legislation? This will happen. The question is which politicians will lead this reform and get the credit.

Instead of requiring that legislation be available to members only, H.Res. 504 would require that it also be available to the general public via the Internet. H.Res. 504 tracks the three-day rule exactly by making no change whatsoever in the exclusions for House procedural rules, Declarations of War legislation, etc. Finally, it would close loopholes by requiring that posted text be the full versions, and the signed versions of conference reports. The obsolete “last six days rule” would also be repealed to set the tone that the 72 hours online rule will apply at the end of the session when the worst abuses occur.