What RTBA does and why

But Congress has not met this duty for a long time. Instead . . .
They carelessly pass mammoth bills that none of them have read. Sometimes printed copies aren't even available when they vote!

Often no one knows what these bills contain, or what they really do, or what they will really cost.

Additions and deletions are made at the last minute, in secrecy.

They combine unpopular proposals with popular measures that few in Congress want to oppose. (This practice is called "log-rolling.")

And votes are held with little debate or public notice.

Oh, and once these bills are passed, and one of these unpopular proposals comes to light, they pretend to be shocked. "How did that get in there?" they say.

There's a basic principle at stake here. America was founded on the slogan, "No taxation without representation." A similar slogan applies to this situation:

"No LEGISLATION without representation."

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.

And since Congress has repeatedly committed "legislation without representation," strong measures to prohibit these Congressional misrepresentations are both justified and required.

To this end we have created the "Read the Bills Act (RTBA)." RTBA requires that . . .
Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.

Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.

Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.

Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.

Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.

Congress cannot waive these requirements.

The effects of these provisions will be profound . . .
Congress will have to slow down. This means the pace of government growth will also slow.

Bills will shrink, be less complicated, and contain fewer subjects, so that Congress will be able to endure hearing them read.

Fewer bad proposals will be passed due to "log-rolling."

No more secret clauses will be inserted into bills at the last moment.

Government should shrink as old laws reach their sunset date, and have to be read for the first time before they can be renewed.

And all of these things will enable a larger DownsizeDC.org to more effectively lobby Congress for small government.

For more information, check it out on the Downsize DC website
http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml