Does Congress Represent You?

I bet you thought a congress person represented you. Wrong. It/he/she/ represents their political party. Whatever the party leadership says, that's how congress members vote. If you don't do as the party says, look for your party to run an opponent against you in your next primary election.

Charles Tolleson
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Is Congress doing its job?

On paper, they sure look busy. Over the week of July 9-14 the House passed 14 bills totaling 663 pages. The Senate passed 3 bills that came to 498 pages. (A complete list of the Bills Congress passed,along with links to roll call votes, is available in the blog version of this Dispatch found here.)http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/2007/jul/19/make_congress_do_its_job

One bill in particular stands out. On July 11, Congress passed the Food and Drug Administration Administration Act (you read that correctly), which ran to an astonishing 308 pages. Health freedom advocates warn that this bill will turn the FDA into a public-private partnership with the ability to develop and patent drugs on its own.They further warn this bill will jeopardize our access to vitamins and other nutritional supplements that compete with Big Pharma.

But only forty minutes were allowed for debate, and amendments could not be proposed or considered. Instead of questioning this process,Congress rubber-stamped the bill with only 16 votes against it.

How many of the 403 who voted "yea" blindly followed the advice of lobbyists and Congressional leaders? How many then patted them selves on the back for "protecting" the American people from supposedly"dangerous" foods?

How many, if they actually read the bill, would have been appalled by some of the provisions, and demanded full debate and amendments? How many would have worked to defeat the bill?

We'll never know, because right now members of Congress aren't even required to read and understand the bills they pass. But when they rubber-stamp bills, they're not representing us. They may look busy,but they're not actually doing the job they were elected to do.

We can change this. We can force Congress to pass the Read the Bills Act and make them do their job. You can learn more about the Read the Bills Act here. http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml

And you can tell your Congressman and Senators to introduce the Read the Bills Act here. http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=27

And finally, you can help us spread the word by joining the Read the Bills Act Coalition. When you join, we will link to your website from our blog. Details are here.http://www.downsizedc.org/rtba/coalition/

Thank-you for being a DC Downsizer.

James Wilson, Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.