(PJ Media)—There is a rule in the House of Representatives that requires the text of proposed legislation to be available for reading by members at least 72 hours, or three days, before the measure can be voted on by the lower chamber of Congress.
But politicians being politicians, the House also has multiple ways of getting around that rule, including outright suspending the rules, adopting a rule specifically tailored to nullify the requirement for a particular proposal, and others. The House can even divide one day into two legislative days if that’s needed to get around the 72-hour requirement.
The result, according to congress.gov, is that “the House has several means by which it can choose to waive these availability requirements and call up, debate, and vote on a measure in a single calendar day even if the text of the measure was not made available prior to consideration.”
So why am I belaboring this point? Two reasons.
First, to emphasize the reality that every senator and every representative in the final analysis is a politician, and politicians almost invariably act in their own self-interest — in this particular case, so their staffers instead of them are stuck with the laborious task of actually reading proposed legislation.
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