Congress needs to disclose who reads what of a bill and when they read it by applying the Congresspersons name and time-stamping when to each bills’ page was read. –This will instill public confidence that Congress is diligent and informed. This will answer to the public what did they know and when did they know it. This could also reveal to citizens where their Congressperson’s interest in a particular bill could lie.
All original authors of the bill should be published with the bill, with the bill’s sponsors. –This gives public recognition to the author(s), and may disclose if lobbyist or special interest groups have their hand in our government.
If congress uses other materials to base their decision on other than the bill (i.e. shortened summary, news, and any other form of information), it needs to be attached separately to the bill by the Congressperson. Including the original authors, the Congressperson’s name and time-stamp, and reference to pages in the bill it applies to needs to be appended. –-This will allow the public to be proactive and correct misinterpretations of a bills’ effect before the bill becomes a law. This will also allow Congresspersons the ability to attach their justifications for refuting the bill.
If the writing within a bill is modified or changed before voting, differentiate this newly unread text by font color, type, or boldness. Create a strikeout version if text removed, and include the authors who changed it. –This will bring the Congresspersons’ and citizens’ attention to newly included and unseen impacts or intended impacts that were obtusely taken out.
Implementation: Congresspersons using a time adjustable rubber time stamp and ink can mark a physical paper as read. A page/assistant of the legislator could scan the page into the online public record of the bill. This time stamping is easier for electronic documents in a future paperless society. By creating for congresspersons a program, such as a modified MS Word/Adobe Reader, which can confirm and record who read any particular page(s) of a bill and when it was read. This program could remotely correspond with the online public record of the bill.
Please tag as Looks Promising!
Comments (2)
This is an excellent suggestion for an idea that could be accomplished rather cheaply and efficiently AND one that would show whether or not our politicians are likely to know what they are doing in Congress.
Be pretty easy to just have staffers stamp all the pages wouldn't it?