[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 709 Introduced in House (IH)]


109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 709

   Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that 
Members have a reasonable amount of time to read legislation that will 
                             be voted upon.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 2, 2006

Mr. Paul submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                           Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to ensure that 
Members have a reasonable amount of time to read legislation that will 
                             be voted upon.

    Resolved, That:
    (a) The Rules of the House of Representatives are amended by adding 
at the end the following new rule:

                              ``rule xxix

                ``time to read legislation before voting

    ``1. Notwithstanding any provision of these rules, no bill, joint 
resolution, conference report, or amendment between the Houses shall be 
voted on by the House unless the text of that measure has been 
available to all Members and their staffs in both printed and 
electronic format for at least 10 days and any manager's amendment or 
other amendment which makes substantive changes to the legislation has 
been made available in both printed and electronic versions for at 
least 72 hours before the scheduled vote on such legislation.
    ``2. Clause 1 shall not apply to--
            ``(1) the intelligence authorization bill, appropriations, 
        or other legislation containing classified information, or 
        conference report thereon, if Members have at least 7 days to 
        study the contents of such measure; and
            ``(2) congressional declarations of war or authorization of 
        military force to respond to attacks on the United States.
    ``3. (a) Any Member who votes for any measure that has been placed 
before the House in violation of this rule shall be deemed to have 
violated House ethics rules and be subject to censure.
    ``(b) Notwithstanding any provision of these rules, any citizen who 
is eligible to vote and who is not an employee of the executive or 
judicial branch of the Government may petition the Committee on 
Standards and Official Conduct to investigate allegations that a Member 
voted for any measure that violated this rule.''.
    (b) Clause 6(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is amended by striking the period at the end of 
subparagraph (2) and inserting ``; or'' and by adding at the end the 
following new subparagraph:
            ``(3) a rule or order that would waive the provisions of 
        rule XXIX.''.
                                 <all>