“On September 24, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that she was “absolutely” committed to putting the text of the final House bill online for 72 hours before the House votes:
TWS: Madam Speaker, do you support the measure to put the final House bill online for 72 hours before it’s voted on at the very end?
PELOSI: Absolutely. Without question.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/11/pelosi_breaks_pledge_to_put_he.asp
So much for more transparency in Congress. More importantly, what is going on with Congress’s voting practices. There isn’t going to be a final bill that is going publicly available in sufficient time for anyone to actually read it (including a lot of the members of Congress). One of the problems with Congress is that people seemingly have no idea on the things they are voting on. A final bill of something worth over a trillion dollars and close to or over a thousand pages should be available to disseminated at minimum at least 72 hours before, ideally at least a week or two. Otherwise, what exactly is Congress doing, voting on a trillion dollar measure without actually having everyone read the document? What are they afraid of? I am assuming the revelation that most people aren’t going to like the bill if they actually had a chance to know what was in it.
Hayek and Goldwater 