I would like to present you will a concept that has been recently on my mind. One that I hope you will read and give some thought to: limiting pages in a bill or resolution to under one hundred per bill/resolution and requiring bill/resolution body to have direct affiliation to the bill title. This would help put the United States back in the hands of the people, give transparency to Americans, cut overspending, eliminate back room deals and much more.
Any bill or resolution must not exceed more than one hundred pages before the final vote in both the house or the senate. This will help uphold people’s right to vote and partially remove back room deals.
I hope If enacted, and with your refinement on thia legislation, we can put more power back in the hands of U.S. citizens as well as eliminate various avenues used for Congress and the Senate's back room deals.
Enacting Legislation that requires any and ALL bills and resolutions that come across the United State’s House and Senate floors to be under one hundred pages in total length, and requiring bills and resolutions, and any and all amendments to them, to have direct affiliation with the title of said bill/resolution/amendment you will remove many obstacles that create bad legislation today, including:
*Back room deals. I understand the exchange of favors needed to get a bill passed, you have to give up a vote to get a vote most of the time, add to your legislation something other representatives want in order for your bill to go through.
By limiting legislation length and requiring direct affiliation with the bill , amendment or resolution title you are requiring them to no longer pat each other on the back to get something passed. You may say, “Congress won’t get anything done then! They only look out for themselves!” This though is where the power goes back into the hands of the people.
The founding fathers originally designed the representatives to represent you the citizen, not their own interests. If a representative did not accurately represent the district he was elected to represent, then the people had a right to elect someone who would. This is the way it was designed to be implemented, an ambassador for your state or district, not a group of kings who could sit in power enacting laws.
If Congress or the Senate can not agree to a one-hundred-page or less document that remains on topic with the title stated at the top of it then Congressmen and Senators need to be replaced by the people. If they refuse to do their job and vote and act in accordance to the wishes of those that elected them because they cannot give two billion dollars to Ukraine, or gender affirming care for illegal immigrants, or open boarders to terrorists, in the bill then it is THE PEOPLE’S duty and responsibility to replace them with a representative/senator who will.
Under this new legislation, representatives would no longer be able to trade votes for personal inclusions in legislation. All legislation will have to remain on topic. The only thing left for them to trade is vote for vote (I will vote for your bill if you will vote for mine), in which case the people will then clearly see how their representatives voted and if they are being accurately represented.
*Transparency for U.S. citizens. Because American citizens will be able to see how their representatives voted and that no back-room deals were directly made in the legislation, you will have more transparency and easier understanding for all Americans, even some of the most uneducated citizens. The only deals representatives could then make are deals made in the broad daylight, not behind the scenes in the dark where everyone is trying to sneak what they want into the bill.
American citizens can clearly read and understand what their representatives voted for. It will remove the mystery many Americans have faced with understanding who’s side our representatives REALLY are on; and if they are for themselves or the people they represent.
Previously, we could not see the back room deals or know what went on in the dark. By eliminating the quid pro quo made directly in the bill’s many amendments and pages, they could no longer sneak things into legislation or burry it under a thousand pages; it would be open and transparent for all citizens to see.
*Over spending. By limiting legislation length and requiring the bill/resolution body and points to have direct affiliation with the bill title you are cutting over spending in the country. If the title of the bill is to ensure U.S. school buses stop at railroads and someone wants to add an amendment to it that requires money to be sent to Ukraine in the bill then not only are you over spending, but you are corrupting an originally good-hearted legislation.
Any and all points in the body of the bill must have relevance to the title and objective of the bill. Funding Ukraine has nothing to do with the U.S., school buses, or the safety of a child and the railroads.
*Rushed voting. No one has time to read a thousand-page bill. Especially when you have to make a decisive vote within a matter of hours. Limiting the length of legislature will allow time for representatives to read and improve their understand of what they are enacting.
If you look at a state and their statutes and laws, Kentucky for example, “the Kentucky Revised Statutes,” there are 640 chapters contained there, with each chapter for the most part being under twenty pages. That is a total of 12,800 pages roughly and that includes every law and revision of laws in Kentucky history.
If Congress needs one twelfth of those pages just to pass a single law, then they are speaking too much and not hearing the people enough. I could get this point across to you in only a few pages very easily, I did not need hundreds of pages.
There are many other issues this policy will help resolve but these listed are just the start to help put the power back in the hands of the people.