The huge and important housing rescue bill will be on the House floor later this week, but Democrats cannot say when or how the text to be considered will be made publicly available online before floor debate.

This bill is arguably the single most important money-related bill that Democrats will move during the 110th Congress. The bill might involve having taxpayers take responsibility for FIVE TRILLION dollars of debt. In terms of ultimate budget impact, HR 3221 may be on the order of magnitude of the costly Medicare prescription drug bill that Republicans jammed through Congress without anyone reading.

At 1 pm today, Monday July 21, 2008, the House Financial Services Committee staff said the committee does not know when or how the text will be made publicly available. They referred me to the offices of the Speaker or Majority Leader. The House Rules Committee said it had no meeting scheduled on the bill, as if they had nothing to do with it. Of course, the Rules Committee often gives last-minute approval to rush bills through the House, and very likely will again for this bill within 48 hours.

Among the dozens of bills whizzing through the House this week under the streamlined "suspension of the rules" process is the Energy Markets Emergency Act. This process is reserved for so-called non-controversial bills. The streamlined process allows no amendments and requires the bill get a 2/3 majority in order to pass.

On the website of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the bill is listed with no bill number on the Thursday, June 26, 2008 floor notice:

ReadtheBill.org today wrote to Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) to thank him for speaking out on the problem of Congress not having time to read bills, and to urge him to cosponsor the best solution -- H.Res. 504. Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, also blogged about the letter. Following is an excerpt:

Blogger Glenn Greenwald focused June 20, 2008 on how little time House members had to read the FISA bill.

UPDATE IV: With less than 24 hours to read -- let alone understand -- what they were voting on, the Democratic-controlled House just passed the "compromise" FISA/telecom amnesty bill by a vote of 293-129. I'll post the link to the roll call when it is available. As always, Republicans supported the bill virtually in lockstep, while Democrats split (105-128). Barack Obama managed not to express a view one way or the other prior to the vote (and still hasn't). Nancy Pelosi spoke in favor of the bill, so the whole top layer of House Democratic leadership supported the bill.

ReadtheBill.org believes that House Democrats are slipping into some of the same bad habits for which they justifiably criticized the 1995-2006 House Republican majority.

On June 19, 2008 Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) engaged in a twitter dialogue with Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller. Kudos to Ellen for asking Rep. Culberson to cosponsor H.Res. 504. Sponsored by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), it would require bills and conference reports to be posted online for 72 hours before House floor debate began.

Here is an excerpt (latest tweets at the top):

EllnMllr @johnculberson Support Rep Baird’s H. Res 504. http://tinyurl.com/583dkr There are 13 bipartisan co-sponsors. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to johnculberson

johnculberson @EllnMllr I am also going to ask my Repub colleagues to support 72 hr rule about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

Johnculberson @EllnMllr Right now is a perfect example of how desperately America needs you and others through the Internet to shine sunlight on Congress about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Please eblast your members your followers and let them know their Congressmen are being asked to approve $185 Bill in War spending about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr in a floor vote before 6pm on a 184 pg $185 b bill that was written at 2:37pm and filed publicly about the same time - outrage! about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

ReadtheBill.org has followed up with Rep. Culberson's staff about H.Res. 504. No word yet if his office is interested. If you are a constituent, please contact him. H.Res. 504 is the best solution proposed to the problem he highlights.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said during a House special order speech December 12, 2007:

Last week we were given the Energy bill, 15 hours before we voted on it, a 1,000-plus page bill, and it had all kinds of problems with it. Buying Lexus hybrids for the Beverly Hills police, many, many things in there that the American people would not approve of.

The Hill newspaper reported November 9 that Democratic House members yesterday hadn't seen a copy of the Iraq funding bill they might have to vote on as soon as today, Friday. This is crazy:

The measure also caught many Democrats off guard. In the early afternoon, most legislators interviewed said they hadn’t seen the legislation, even some who were actively trying to obtain a copy.

Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), the co-sponsor of the last significant Iraq legislation in the House, said mid-afternoon Thursday that he didn’t even know he would be voting on an Iraq bill the next day.

“Between Peru free trade, AMT, SCHIP and everything else, I don’t know what we’re doing next,” Tanner said in reference to legislation on the alternative minimum tax and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

After Congress adjourned for the August recess, the Washington Post editorialized that the Democratic House majority was falling into the same habit as the previous Republican majority: not allowing "adequate time for members to digest complex legislation."

For those who thought electing a Democratic Senate majority would completely solve the problem of lack of adequate time to read bills, the absent immigration deal text is a bad omen. The text is not available Friday even though floor debate will begin early next week.

On Thur., May 17, senators held a press conference to announce the deal. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) said, "Language will be available, we're hopeful, by mid- or late afternoon or first thing in the morning. We had set that so Friday, so people will be able to go on over that, and we start in on Monday." But Friday, May 18 at 11 AM, Kennedy's deputy communications director told me that the text would not be introduced until Monday, and would not be available before then.

This is a complex topic, but that is no excuse for beginning Senate floor debate on major legislation without giving the public (or even senators) time to read the bill text properly.

House Democrats are slipping. Members and the public will not have time to properly read the conference report on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill for fiscal year 2007 (H.R. 1591). The conference report was filed this afternoon (Tues., Apr. 24) and is available on the front page of the House Rules Committee website as two separate documents. Even earlier today, the House Appropriations Committee had a detailed summary of the conference report available on its website before the full text became available. Summaries can be very helpful, but the text is crucial, and its availability is required under House rules.