[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 216 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 216

   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 5, 2009

   Mr. Paul (for himself, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Burton of 
 Indiana, and Mr. Jones) 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 redesignating rule XXIX as rule XXX and by inserting after 
rule XXVIII 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. 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 board of the Office 
of Congressional Ethics 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 inserting before the period at the end 
thereof the following: ``, or a rule or order that would waive the 
provisions of rule XXIX''.
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