Diagnosis: Nance Has Short-Term Memory Loss
Poor thing, and at such a youthful age
By haystack Posted in Liberals — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
[updated: the Lobbying reform bill has passed OVERWHELMINGLY...and I bring you Nancy's letter in toto-some here, the rest below the fold]
An excerpt:
The House of Representatives is supposed to be a market place of ideas, and any debate on open government must not restrict the discussion of serious proposals. Accordingly, on behalf of the Democratic Members of the House, and all others who may wish to address areas of abuse not sufficiently covered in the Republican bill, I am calling on you to use your authority as Speaker to direct the Rules Committee to report an unrestricted rule on lobby reform.
In particular, the rule for consideration of lobby reform should make in order a vote on H.R. 4862, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, which I introduced together with 162 other Democrats in January. This legislation contains specific proposals for addressing the lobbying scandals and other ethical issues that have tainted Congress in recent years, including strong and permanent gift and travel restrictions on the revolving door between Members and lobbying jobs, shutting down the "K Street" project in which jobs in lobbying firms were traded for legislative favors, requiring charter fare for charter flights, and more extensive disclosure of lobbyist activity.
Funny Nance...didn't you guys just put YOUR version of this legislation under closed rule?
So, you forgot about what you said to Hastert, you didn't mean what you said to Hastert, or you're just desperate...
Which is it, Madame Speaker?
The letter below the fold...
April 21, 2006
Dear Speaker Hastert:
Next week, the House is scheduled to take up one of the most significant matters of of this Congress - lobbying reform and ethics reform. This critical legislation will have a direct impact on how the House addresses legislative issues affecting the people of this nation, from gas prices to Medicare prescription drugs, as well as on the standards under which Members must conduct themselves.
The legislation reportedly being prepared by the Republican leadership for next week is limited in scope and impact. Given the high level of interest in this subject as evidenced by the number of bills introduced on lobbying and ethics reform by Members from both parties, there are certainly other areas of reform that ought to be included in the debate during floor consideration.
The House of Representatives is supposed to be a market place of ideas, and any debate on open government must not restrict the discussion of serious proposals. Accordingly, on behalf of the Democratic Members of the House, and all others who may wish to address areas of abuse not sufficiently covered in the Republican bill, I am calling on you to use your authority as Speaker to direct the Rules Committee to report an unrestricted rule on lobby reform.
In particular, the rule for consideration of lobby reform should make in order a vote on H.R. 4862, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, which I introduced together with 162 other Democrats in January. This legislation contains specific proposals for addressing the lobbying scandals and other ethical issues that have tainted Congress in recent years, including strong and permanent gift and travel restrictions on the revolving door between Members and lobbying jobs, shutting down the "K Street" project in which jobs in lobbying firms were traded for legislative favors, requiring charter fare for charter flights, and more extensive disclosure of lobbyist activity.
In addition, the Democratic lobbying and ethics reform proposal requires changes in the way Congress does its business in order to end practices that subvert the open and fair legislative process, by ending the "dead of night" legislating used to pass crucial and complex legislation without full public or Member review, requiring earmark reform, and mandating open conference committee meetings so special interest provisions cannot be slipped into bills without public scrutiny.
Mr. Speaker, we have many substantive disagreements on matters of public policy, but on this issue - assuring that debate and consideration of lobbying and congressional reform is conducted in a fair and open manner - I hope that we can agree. It would be insulting to the ideals of democracy if debate on a bill called the “The Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act” were to be conducted under restrictive rules that limit discussion and close the legislative process.
Ain't she just precious?