OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Totally agree that laws MUST be reviewed by the office holder (not a staff member who is

NOT elected) before being voted on. It's outrageous that laws are passed without a reading by the representative who is put there to do the job. Not only should they be fired they should be tried in court for fraud.

Absolutely right. They all must think it is a big joke when they hire in a "speed reader" to read a 900 page bill that is to be signed into law. It is a sad state of affairs we are in when our elected officials mock the fact that we believe they should understand what they are voting on. At the same time, they are supporting renegotiation of mortgages foolish people signed with adjustable interest rates (that apparently they didn't read or understand). Does anyone really think they congress and the senate will have a chance to renegotiate bills signed into law because they thought it was ok not to read them? I doubt it.

Nice concept. but there's no way to enforce it. There is no possible way to verify whether or not a member of congress has read a bill.

So you should withdraw this suggestion.

Contrariwise, you might suggest that no bill be longer than [X] number of pages, so that mere mortals can actually read it.

if it requires a lawyer to understand it... then the law has failed to be cleanly and morally useful.

Or to put it another way: if there is not a CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD NEED for something... clearly understood to be described in less than [X] pages... then there should not be a law about it.

This is great idea but, we may assuming too much in that a congressman actually has any ability to comprehend what they read.