Things you can do right now on the bailout bill

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Sunlight Foundation

Tell Congress to Read the Bailout Bill First!

Today, the Sunlight Foundation is calling on Congress to exercise restraint and increase legislative transparency by posting the next version of the financial bailout legislation online for at least 72 hours before bringing the bill to a vote.

We believe all legislation should posted online for at 72 hours before a vote to give lawmakers and citizens sufficient time to review and debate it, and this bill is no exception.

That's why we just created a petition -- http://readthebillfirst.org -- that urges Congress to wait at least until 72 hours after the publication of the next version of this bill, before moving to a vote.

The failure of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008(H.R.3997) on Monday, September 29, 2008, is a case in point. The bill was posted online late Sunday afternoon, and voted on less than 24 hours later.

This isn't a bill to rename a few courthouses; this bill is Congress's biggest intervention in the economy in decades. This important legislation deserved more time for public scrutiny.

Please join us in our call for legislative transparency by signing the petition at http://readthebillfirst.org

You can review and comment on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act on PublicMarkup.org -- http://tinyurl.com/4q3zvn -- too.

Our Party Time site -- http://PoliticalPartyTime.org -- is also doing its part to shine a light on how the financial sector is wining and dining the very lawmakers in Congress who are making the decisions about the most massive proposed bailout of industry in history. Based on the anonymously submitted invitations we've received, we now count 357 parties this year planned for or featuring members of the two crucial committees that are the first stops for considering the administration's $700 billion bailout request for the financial sector. See the full list of parties here: http://tinyurl.com/3htbev.

And be sure to check out our blog post here -- http://tinyurl.com/3lq3d7 -- about the finance industry's investment over the past 18 years attempting to influence Congress. The post includes a very cool interactive graph showing their spending, and a YouTube tutorial video explaining the graph.

Thanks for all that you do,

Gabriela Schneider & the Sunlight team


>All Things Reform Mobile: allthingsreform.mofuse.mobi >Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (not toll-free) >US House/Senate Mobile: bit.ly/members >Contact your reps tips: bit.ly/dear >Shortened All Things Reform URL: bit.ly/dw

Related articles by Zemanta

• Party Time, a new database of federal candidate fundraisers
• Ask your US Senators if they support filing of campaign contributions electronically

Sphere: Related Content

New wiki helps make bills easier to read

Readable Laws wiki subtitle is "Legislation in plain English". It focuses on only several Congressional bills active right now, as it is still fairly new. They are always looking for contributors to this wiki form of public collaboration, to increase its number of bills.

This site is a project of NewAssignment.Net, a project in open-source, pro-am journalism. It will prove to be very helpful to the vast majority of the general public (including me!) wanting to find out what interesting bills in legislation actually say.

Sphere: Related Content

Read the Bills Act-- "No legislation without representation"

Downsize DC has an ongoing netroots campaign to push leglislation for the "Read the Bills Act" (RTBA). Just as it says, it requires all who vote for a bill to read it first. If you agree, take action at this webpage or send you message on your own.

Sphere: Related Content