Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The Constitution of the United States vests all legislative powers granted therein in Congress. (2) Each Member of Congress is elected by the people to whom the Member is accountable, and Members must represent the people of their respective State or District in exercising their legislative powers. (3) Establishing a Government of enumerated powers, article I, section 1 of the Constitution of the United States obliges Congress to exercise only those legislative powers provided for in the Constitution of the United States, and article VI of the Constitution of the United States requires that each Member of Congress be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States by enacting only those laws, and making only those resolutions, that are pursuant to the Constitution of the United States and not prohibited thereby. (4) To ensure that Congress is politically and legally accountable to the people, article I, section 5 of the Constitution of the United States requires each House of Congress to keep a journal of its proceedings and from time to time publish the same. (5) To ensure that no legislation is passed without effective representation of the interests of the people by the elected Members of Congress, article I, section 7 of the Constitution of the United States provides that only a bill “which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate,” and not vetoed by the President, shall become a law. (6) According to section I of the Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1801 (referred to in this section as Jefferson's Manual), “nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of administration and those who acted with the majority … than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding [which] operated as a check and control of the actions of the majority [and] a shelter and protection to the minority”. (7) According to sections XXII and XL of Jefferson's Manual, it was the rule of the Senate that every bill receive 3 readings, 2 full readings by the Clerk of the Senate, and a third reading of the title of the bill only, because “every Member of the Senate had a printed copy [of the bill] in his hand.”. (8) According to sections XXIV, XXV, and XL of Jefferson's Manual, it was the rule of the House of Representatives, following the parliamentary procedure of the English House of Commons, that every bill receive 2 full readings by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and a reading of the whole contents of the bill verbatim by the Speaker of the House of Representatives before the House of Representatives voted on the bill. (9) Under the current rules of the Senate, the Senate has departed from its original practice of a full first and second reading of each bill, and of ensuring that each Senator has a printed or other verbatim copy of each bill before passage thereof, having by rule XIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate limited each reading of a bill to the reading of the title of the bill only, unless the Senate in any case shall otherwise order. (10) Under the current rules of the House of Representatives, the House of Representatives has by rule XVI (8) and rule XVIII (5) embraced its original practice of full first and second readings of each bill, but has regularly departed from this practice by unanimous consent of the House of Representatives, and has dispensed altogether its original practice of a verbatim third reading of each bill before passage, limiting such third reading to the reading of the title only, including the reading of the title only even when Members of the House of Representatives have no printed or other verbatim copy of the bill before passage. (11) Although section 106 of title 1, United States Code, requires a bill to be made available in written form to each Member of Congress before final passage, Congress has by statute conferred upon itself the power, during the last 6 days of a session of Congress, by concurrent resolution, to vote for passage of a bill that is not in written form at the time of final passage. (12) As a direct consequence of the departure of the Senate and the House of Representatives from the salutary practice of full, verbatim readings of each bill before final passage, and further, as a direct consequence of Congress, by concurrent resolution and otherwise, having permitted certain appropriation, budget, and regulatory bills to be enacted into law without such bills being printed and presented to Congress in written form prior to final passage, Congress has— (A) imposed upon the people of the United States excessively long bills, largely written by an unelected bureaucracy, resulting in generally incomprehensible, cumbersome, oppressive, and burdensome laws, containing hidden provisions for special interests; (B) deprived the people of the United States and their elected Senators and Members of a full and fair opportunity to examine the text of bills, and all amendments thereto, prior to passage; (C) undermined the confidence of the people of the United States as a result of its failure to provide adequate notice to the people before a vote is taken on the bills and amendments thereto; and (D) called into question the integrity and reliability of the legislative processes in both Houses of Congress by its failure to ensure that each Senator and each Member of the House of Representatives has, prior to passage, either listened attentively to the reading of the full text of each bill, and amendments thereto, or has personally read the text thereof. (13) Federal law currently sets forth various requirements relating to the form of bills and resolutions, and the procedure for enacting laws, including— (A) the form of the enacting clause of all Acts of Congress (section 101 of title 1, United States Code); (B) the form of the resolving clause of all joint resolutions (section 102 of title 1, United States Code); (C) a limitation on the use of enacting or resolving words (section 103 of title 1, United States Code); (D) the requirement regarding the numbering of sections and the requirement that each contain a single proposition (section 104 of title 1, United States Code); (E) the style and title for all bills making appropriations (section 105 of title 1, United States Code); and (F) the process by which each bill or joint resolution is handled after passage (section 106 of title 1, United States Code).