Read The Bills Act

The following is just a little something I sent to my representative and senators via Downsize DC's Read The Bills Act Campaign. This is basically Downsize DC's "signature" campaign, the primary issue they'd like to get addressed.

Congress needs to start reading the laws it passes. Please introduce DownsizeDC.org's "Read the Bills Act." I know you have the power to introduce this legislation on your own, without waiting for anyone else. I urge you to do so. This is a much-needed, common sense reform. I can see no justification for not introducing it. I'm telling my friends about it, and I look forward to hearing that you've introduced it. You can find the text of the legislation here: http://www.downsizedc.org/rtba_legislation.shtml

An analogy: How limiting the flow can actually induce better results.

I have a friend who works in the intelligence community. We are all aware of the controversy over attempts by the previous administration to cast an unconstitutionally wide information gathering net. One might think this is done to make the intelligence community's job easier. But what I hear from the professionals, both those publishing articles on the subject as well as my friend, is that a bloat of untargeted information actually makes their job harder, absorbing resources to analyze all this extra, often irrelevant data that could be used analyzing more important data. Constitutional procedure that limits their ability to collect information, forcing them to prioritize and improving the quality of the information acquired.

In a similar fashion, the "Read The Bills Act" could end up forcing leadership and committees to prioritize in the introduction of legislation. It would definitely encourage brevity of language, making it more difficult to hide abuses of the process by special interest groups. By slowing the process by which bills come to the floor and get voted, it could actually make your job considerably easier. I can think of no reason why the RTBA could be a bad idea.