[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 39 (Thursday, March 5, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               STATEMENT ON INTRODUCING THE SUNLIGHT RULE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 5, 2009

  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis 
famously said, ``Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'' In order to shine 
sunlight on the practices of the House of Representatives, and thus 
restore public trust and integrity to this institution, I am 
introducing the sunlight rule, which amends House rules to ensure that 
members have adequate time to study a bill before being asked to vote 
on it. One of the chief causes of increasing public cynicism regarding 
Congress is the way major pieces of legislation are brought to the 
floor without members having an opportunity to read the bills. For 
example, the over-one-thousand page economic stimulus bill was first 
posted on the Internet at 12:30 a.m. the night before the vote. 
Obviously, this did not give individual members of Congress adequate 
time to review what is certainly one of, if not the, most significant 
pieces of legislation that Congress will consider this year.
  My proposed rule requires that no piece of legislation, including 
conference reports, can be brought before the House of Representatives 
unless it has been available to members and staff in both print and 
electronic version for at least ten days. My bill also requires that a 
manager's amendment that makes substantive changes to a bill be 
available in both printed and electronic forms at least 72 hours before 
voted on. While manager's amendments are usually reserved for technical 
changes, oftentimes manager's amendments contain substantive additions 
to or subtractions from bills. Members should be made aware of such 
changes before being asked to vote on a bill.
  The sunlight rule provides the people the opportunity to be involved 
in enforcing the rule by allowing a citizen to petition for an Office 
of Congressional Ethics investigation into any House Member who votes 
for a bill brought to the floor in violation of this act. The sunlight 
rule can never be waived by the Committee on Rules or House leadership. 
If an attempt is made to bring a bill to the floor in violation of this 
rule, any member could raise a point of order requiring the bill to be 
immediately pulled from the House calendar until it can be brought to 
the floor in a manner consistent with this rule.
  Madam Speaker, the practice of rushing bills to the floor before 
individual members have had a chance to study the bills is one of the 
major factors contributing to public distrust of Congress. Voting on 
bills before members have had time to study them makes a mockery of 
representative government and cheats the voters who sent us here to 
make informed decisions on public policy. Adopting the sunlight rule is 
one of, if not the, most important changes to the House rules this 
Congress could make to restore public trust in, and help preserve the 
integrity of, this institution. I hope my colleagues will support this 
change to the House rules.

                          ____________________