[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 25751-25752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 ALL LEGISLATION SHOULD BE AVAILABLE ON INTERNET 24 HOURS BEFORE A VOTE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 7, 2004

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, last month Congress passed the FY2005 
Omnibus Appropriations Bill. The version that passed the House included 
a provision that would allow Appropriations Chairmen access to IRS tax 
returns. Once this provision was noticed, the

[[Page 25752]]

Senate passed a resolution to strip it and the House was forced to go 
back into a pro forma session to adopt the Senate language. Two years 
ago, outrage followed the passage of an omnibus bill that included 
indemnification language for vaccine makers against autism lawsuits.
  Earlier this year, I introduced H.R. 4971, the Restoring Democracy to 
the United States Congress Act. This legislation sought to enact a 
series of reforms that I believe would have prevented this from 
happening. If the bill was law, among other things, it would have 
required the legislation to be online in a searchable form for a 
minimum of 24 hours before we voted on it.
  As an opportunity for Members to clearly state that the current 
manner in which we often consider legislation is not good for the 
institution, I am introducing legislation that would require all 
legislation be available to the public on the Internet and in a 
searchable form for a minimum of 24 hours before a vote could be 
considered.

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