Michael O’Brien
The Hill
7/22/2010
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) ridiculed on Thursday an effort pushed by Republicans to allow lawmakers more time to read legislation.
Hoyer dismissed a proposal by House GOP leader John Boehner (Ohio) and other Republicans to require 72 hours to read legislation before a final vote on it is scheduled.
Boehner launched a “read the bill” effort on Thursday to promote the GOP’s proposed reform, which the minority leader has said would be a key reform he’d make should he become speaker of the House.
“His hypothetical is so unreasonable … that it doesn’t bear commenting on,” Hoyer said, mocking Republicans’ chances of taking back the House in this fall’s elections, a development which would make Boehner speaker.
“This is beating a drum that’s not relevant,” the second-ranking House Democrat said.
“The reality of which he speaks is not likely,” Hoyer added, again dismissing Republicans’ chances of winning back the House.
“Given the endless string of broken promises and backroom deals that comprise House Democrats’ job-killing record, I can see why the Majority Leader would find letting the American people – and Members of Congress – read a bill before it passes, ‘unreasonable,'” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel shot back. “But this is not the Democrats’ House, it is the people’s House, and the people have a right to know what we’re voting on.”
