The Reading of the Bills

One of the major problems with this country is that Congress keeps passing new laws.  Massive ones and small ones alike.  We have hundreds of thousands of laws.

This web of rules and regulations is strangling the country.

And they often pass these laws without actually having read them. 

Seriously.   Of the 2,800 page Obamacare bill, Nancy Pelosi said that we will 'need to pass the bill in order to find out what is in it".  This statement alone if grounds for impeachment.  Nevermind the fact that she 'deemed' the bill to have passed in a gross violation of the rule of law.  They are not only passing laws without reading them, they are doing it as a part of the strategy.

Nobody can possibly read this before it is passed, never mind understand it later.

I propose a simple new amendment to the Constitution. 

• All bills must be read aloud on the floor of the house and senate prior to any voting.  The bill must be in final form. Any edits, amendments, riders, or other changes will require the reading to start over from the beginning. 
• The reading must be at a normal pace. 
• No member of Congress may vote on a bill unless they been present for and have listened to at least 95% of the reading of the bill.

This will have several effects. 

It will slow the whole process down.  We have enough laws, we will benefit from fewer laws being passed.
It will force transparency.  We will know what is in the bills before we vote on them.
It will reduce amendments and other back office shenanigans. 

By requiring the reading of bills, we will go a long way to slowing down the out-of-control lawmaking process.