Hiding in Darkness
by TChris
The Washington Post notes that the House of Representatives is doing its dirty work in the dead of night or in the wee morning hours — “well past the deadlines for the evening news or the morning paper.â€
The House voted at 6:07 a.m. yesterday to shave $39.7 billion from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. At 5:04 a.m., lawmakers voted to open the Alaskan wilderness to oil exploration.
The House's original version of the budget-cutting bill, which was significantly tougher, passed Nov. 18 at 1:41 a.m. On July 28, the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- ardently opposed by labor unions, which had put excruciating pressure on industrial state lawmakers -- squeaked through the House just past midnight. On March 21, a measure that thrust the federal government into the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case passed the House at 12:45 a.m.
And on Nov. 22, 2003, in an extraordinary, three-hour roll call, the House took much of the pre-dawn morning to pass the bill adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare.
Maybe it’s time for a different kind of “sunshine†bill: one that requires our elected representatives to vote on bills (in the absence of a dire emergency) when people are awake and watching.
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