Group Wants Legislators' Pledge To Read Entire Health Care Bill

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A conservative group wants every lawmaker to pledge to read the entire bill for comprehensive health reform before voting.

Politico reports: "With staff, lobbyists and think tanks providing their own analysis of bills, members of Congress can go without reading the text. But Let Freedom Ring, a group that promotes constitutional government and traditional values, has launched a campaign to get all 535 lawmakers in the House and Senate to pledge to not vote on the health care bill (likely to top 1,000 pages) until they have personally read it and the bill has been posted on the Internet for 72 hours."

Politico reports: "President Barack Obama promised during the campaign to post a bill online for five days before signing it into law. But he hasn't followed through on the pledge as president, almost never waiting the full period. The White House has since reworked that approach, saying it will now post the bills before they pass Congress. Expect to hear more criticism from Republicans as the health care bill moves forward. It is likely to stoke a heated transparency debate, given the scale of the changes that Congress is contemplating, the quick timeline under which it is operating and the scope of the bill, which could fundamentally restructure 17 percent of the economy. None of the five House and Senate committees working on health care has produced a complete bill, but Democratic leaders still hope to schedule votes by the August recess. Judging from the draft versions, the bill will be expansive. The House 'discussion draft' clocks in at 850 pages. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee produced partial legislation that was already 615 pages long" (Brown, 6/30).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

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