DEMOCRATS BALK AT POSTING HEALTHCARE BILLS, OTHER
LEGISLATION ONLINE
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Tell Congress to REJECT ObamaCare!
FaxDC.com wants to send this urgent and personalized Blast Fax message to all 535 members of the
House and Senate for YOU.
Alert: As Congress prepares to consider historic changes to the nation's health care system, Democratic
leaders are balking at supporting a change in the rules that would let the public see the bills' texts 72 hours
before a vote.
An unusual coalition of conservatives, watchdog groups and a handful of Democrats has joined the push by
Rep. Brian Baird , D- Wash. , to put the 72-hour measure into a binding rule for the House of
Representatives . Similar efforts in the Senate haven't gained much momentum.
House Democratic leaders have pledged transparency before. In their 2006 campaign book, in the "integrity"
section, they vowed that legislation would be available to the public 24 hours before "consideration" of final
versions.
On some recent big bills, that hasn't happened, however. On Feb. 12 , the 1,100-page, $787 billion
economic-stimulus plan was made public at 10:45 p.m. EST and brought up in the House 13 hours later.
Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D- Calif. , said that since Democrats
took control of the House in 2007, several measures had been adopted to make the legislative process
more transparent, such as posting amendments' texts online before consideration.
Pelosi also said last month that she was "absolutely" willing to put the health care bill online 72 hours in
advance but that she wouldn't back legislation forcing her to do so.
"The vast majority of bills that have been considered by the House have been online for weeks and will
continue to follow this process," Elshami said. Elshami didn't respond, however, when asked why Pelosi
won't back Baird's bill.
Baird vowed to keep pushing.
"It's great what she said about health care, but it hasn't happened yet," he said. "The problem is that over the
last decade or so, the more important the legislation, the less time we've had to read it."
Republicans and independent watchdog groups also have pounced.
"We think the public has a right and an obligation to look at these bills, and perhaps say to their
congressman or senator, 'Fix this,' '' said Lisa Rosenberg , the government affairs consultant at the Sunlight
Foundation , an independent group that works for openness in government.
Republicans were hardly champions of such transparency when they controlled Congress most of the time
from 1995 to 2007. The 2,065-page 2003 Medicare prescription-drug benefit bill was made available to the
public 22 hours before House debate began.
According to a study by Rafael DeGennaro , the president of Citizen Century Institute , an independent
research group based in Branford, Conn. , Republican House leaders acted on eight major budget bills
from 1996 to 2004 without giving 72 hours' notice.
Two developments have spurred the movement to change the system: the House Democrats' 2006
platform, and the rise of the Internet, which gives the public unprecedented access to Congress' inner
workings.
Seventy-two hours is considered adequate time for review because "a handful of hours is really too short,
but we don't want a rule that forces one more slowdown," said Bartlett Cleland, the director of the Institute for
Policy Innovation's Center for Technology Freedom , an advocacy group based in Dallas .
The House and Senate are expected to finish writing health care legislation shortly, perhaps by the end of
this week, with floor debate to follow as soon as next week.
Baird and Rep. Greg Walden , R- Ore. , are trying to force their 72-hour resolution to change House rules to
the floor with a "discharge petition," an unusual procedure that leaders dislike because it challenges their
control of the process.
Currently, the petition has 182 signatures, almost all Republicans; 218 are needed to force a House vote.
In the Senate , where the issue rarely has come up, Republicans tried to get the Finance Committee to
adopt the 72-hour rule as it deliberated over health care measures last month. Part of the problem: The
committee technically wasn't writing a bill, but drafting "conceptual language."
Chairman Max Baucus , D- Mont. , urged everyone not to worry. "It's all good faith," he said. "It's based on
comity. We work together. We trust each other. And that's worked very, very well." The 72-hour effort failed by
one vote in the Finance Committee. (Newsmax)
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SENATE HEALTH-CARE BILL 1,502 PAGES
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ell Congress to REJECT ObamaCare!
FaxDC.com wants to send this urgent and personalized Blast Fax message to all 535 members of the
House and Senate for YOU.
Alert: Senate Finance Committee members have been notified that the committee's health reform bill was
filed today. S. 1796 weighs in at 1,502 pages, according to a Senate Republican leadership source. It's still
not up yet on the Finance Committee website or Thomas.gov. We'll post a link as soon as we get one.
UPDATED:
Read the entire 1,502 page Finance bill.
Click Here: http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb101909.pdf
Read a document outlining the concerns of Sens. Kerry, Schumer, Menendez, Stabenow and Rockefeller
that the tax on high-end plans will hit plans that are not overly generous.
Click Here: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM138_091019_additional.html
Read Sen. Rockefeller's expanded views on reform.
Click Here: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM138_091019_additional1.html
UPDATE 2: The Senate Finance Committee filed its sweeping health care reform bill Monday and its release
served largely to highlight the divisions among Democrats over the direction of reform.
The massive, 1,500 page bill is expected to serve as the backbone for Democratic reform efforts going
forward and five senators expressed concerns about one of its main provisions, a 40 percent tax on
high-end insurance plans.
The tax is designed to pay for reform and lower costs by making the so-called Cadillac plans less attractive
for insurers to offer. Under the bill, a plan that costs an individual more than $8,000 and a family more than
$21,000 annually would be subject to the tax.
But Democratic Sens. John Kerry, Chuck Schumer, Robert Menendez, Debbie Stabenow and Jay Rockefeller
are concerned that the threshold that defines a Cadillac plan is too low and will whack middle-class people.
"We remain concerned that the thresholds are too low and will impact plans that are not overly generous and
that in 2019 far too many plans will be impacted by the excise tax. We plan to continue to work with Chairman
Baucus on this issue to ensure that provision bends the cost curve, but not at the expense of middle-income
Americans," the senators wrote in a one-page additional views document that was released with the bill.
The document is reminiscent of a dissent that is filed with the majority opinion in a court case.
Rockefeller filed his own 13-page additional views document that spelled out his concerns, many of which
he aired during the eight-day mark up of the bill. The West Virginia Democrat remains concerns that the bill
does not contain a public option; that it does not uniformly apply insurance market reforms and that
state-based exchanges designed to help people buy insurance will not be as effective as a single national
one.
UPDATE 3: It's important to remember that the bill won't exist in this form for long. Senate Majority Leader
Reid and Sens. Max Baucus and Chris Dodd along with senior White House aides are merging the Finance
and Health Committee legislation into one bill that will be considered on the floor of the Senate. The
behind-closed-doors dealings have drawn criticism from Republicans, particularly because President
Obama had promised a transparent process and pledged to negotiate the health care bill on C-SPAN.
(WND)
DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
TAKE ACTION: Send YOUR blast FAX to ALL 535 Congressman NOW!
To visit FaxDC.com, click here: http://faxdc.com/
To view Your Fax Message, click here: http://faxdc.com/healthcare.htm
To Fax Blast Capitol Hill, click here: http://faxdc.com/healthorder.htm
To Send a pink slip to Congress, click here: http://faxdc.com/pinkslip.htm
Fax Specials, click here: http://faxdc.com/flagbearer.htm
To view the Ultimate Protest Package, click here: http://faxdc.com/ultimateprotestpackage.htm
Be part of the FaxDC.com Army and subscribe to the Auto-Fax Program
$ 25.00 per month at: http://www.faxdc.com/friends.htm
Thank You Patriot! Your friends at FaxDC.com
NOTE: Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know who supports saving America and Protecting our
Middle Class. Thank you!
We Support Responsible Email Compliance:
This email cannot be considered spam as long as we include: Contact information & remove instructions.
This message is being sent to you in compliance with the current Federal legislation for commercial e-mail
(H.R.4176 - SECTION 101Paragraph (e)(1)(A)) AND Bill s.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress.
Not responsible for typographical errors. Further transmissions to you may be stopped at no cost to you by
replying back with the word "REMOVE" in the subject line of the E-mail which was sent.
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