Rushed Bills

What's the big rush? When members of Congress take up major issues—a $789 billion stimulus bill, legislation authorizing wiretaps, drug and medical device safety—all too often they start debating a bill neither they nor the public has had time to read. The Sunlight Foundation's ReadTheBill.org campaign and OpenCongress believe that the full text of every bill should be posted online for a minimum of 72 hours so elected officials know what they are voting on, and their constituents have the chance to weigh in before it's too late. This simple requirement will boost transparency and accountability in Congress. [ Read more ]

Feeds from OpenCongress on Rushed Bills

To help you track which bills were rushed through the legislative process, we've created this page. This is a continually-updating list of bills in Congress for which the time from the full text being publicly available to the point of consideration is less than 72 hours.

See full information for the rushed bills on Open Congress.

* - Due to limitations on Congressional data, the exact time this bill was made available cannot be determined at this time, but it was considered in less than 72 hours. For more info about a bill's timeline in the legislative process, click on a bill name above and then follow the link in the middle of the page to "See All Actions".

** - While the initial bill text in the House and the Senate was publicly available for over 72 hours, the final text, in the form of the conference report, was available for fewer than 72 hours.

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