Single Issue Bills for Congress

Liberty
383

@Fulbright22 I’m really ok with it taking “forever” to get anything done.

Rush-rush-hurry-hurry its-an-emergency-PANIC is an easy and reliable tactic for getting extra pork and extra government over-reach and control pushed into law. Too-big and too-fast are the enemies of rational, visible, understandable changes.

Initially, it may hurt. Certainly some people are going to complain as if they are dying. Consider that’s in good part a tantrum by the folks who want to take resources from others and are used to having their own way.

Things will ABSOLUTELY slow down.

It’s a good thing.

It means waste can be identified, over-reach can be spotted and addressed, and better cheaper smarter methods can be found. Over time, the process of writing bills and making laws will get faster, cleaner, more efficient. There’s every reason to believe we can do this faster than the current process. And certainly we can do it with more honesty and integrity. We just need to learn, and practice, the new way of doing it.

Frankly, when a governing body sees their madate as 1) make more laws, 2) control more things, 3) spend more money, and 4) protect and expand their own power, the BEST thing we can do is hit the brakes, hard.

If NO NEW LAW gets passed for a year while we work out how to do this in rational bites, I’m 100% good with it.

We have more than enough laws. We have too many programs. We give away too much money. We allow massive compromise of citizen’s rights. We waste astronomical amounts of citizen’s money.

FULL HALT is appropriate.

There’s no weaning off this bad methodology that’s going to fundamentally restore it to sanity. Sometimes you just have to pull the plug on a method and start again.

4 Likes
384

This is a great measure, good thinking!

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385

I love the idea of a single-issue bill, with built in timelines and reading requirements. Let’s not forget that accountability is key. Those of you in business know that a concrete goal for the plan must be determined and published. From there, one must track and regularly report on the progress to the stakeholders. In this case, the American people are the stakeholders.

386

The only thing I disagree with is that with current technology they can vote from their home state they don’t need to vote in person all the traveling is a waste of tax payer dollars. They are voted in to serve the people of their state they shouldn’t be traveling on our dime when COVID proved our technology was up to the task.

387

Thank you, I appreciate the help! Is there a way to save revisions on here? What is the best way to collaborate, I’m so happy the people seem to agree with this proposal. I do want to make sure it sticks to the provisions proposed in the bill: single subject, one page, easy to read, etc.

1 Like
388

This is still great to see! Thank you for sharing!

389

Single issues I agree with, but limit the pages to under one hundred. You DO need multiple pages to clarify, but not 1,000+ of them!

Look at the structuring of amendments, bills, and resolutions; you have to define terms and conditions in the legislation as well.
For example, ifit’s a bill about school bus funding you have to determine what qualifies as a “school bus” and is this funding available for both private and publis schools.
You DO NOT however, need 1,000+ pages to determine that! Even 100 pages is generous, honestly they should be able to do it in under 50 pages unless it is a very complicated matter that requires you to define a lot of aspects.

4 Likes
390

i so agree, we really need single bills and for everything to be read not just signed.

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391

All you folks who support this should also give a vote to “Call a Convention of the States to Limit the Scope, Power and Jurisdiction of the Federal Government”, because you can ALSO achieve the same goal through a Convention, plus other policies you might support! Why limit yourself to a single topic? It’s perfectly safe; nothing that passes out of the Convention can become law until three-fourths of the states ratify it, so anything too extreme will be doomed from the outset.

2 Likes
392

I am a HUGE fan of this. But Congress will NEVER impose this on itself. The ONLY way to get this done is through imposing it by a constitutional amendment through a Convention of States. Please join us to get this done: Call a Convention of the States to Limit the Scope, Power and Jurisdiction of the Federal Government

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393

How about doing this first, before new regulations can go into effect?

394

Yes yes and yes…… we could save our country trillions of dollars By limiting Voted on issues To only concerning that issue

395

That rocks

396

I want to add this in if you don’t mind with I mean obviously be second to the single issue bill but I think it’s kind of time that maybe we need to take things over. So the public should be able to read and vote on all of it.

Policy Proposal: Enhancing Legislative Transparency and Public Participation

Objective: To establish a program that requires a schedule of bills to be voted on, all bills to be posted online for public review and input at least two weeks prior to the vote. This program will allow citizens to use their voter ID numbers to vote on the legislation and provide comments, ensuring that representatives and senators are aware of their constituents’ opinions.

Background: The legislative process often lacks transparency and sufficient public input, leading to a disconnect between elected officials and their constituents. By implementing a system that allows for public review and feedback on pending legislation, the government can enhance transparency, accountability, and democratic participation.

Policy Proposal:

Online Legislative Portal:

Create a secure online portal where all scheduled legislation is posted at least two weeks prior to the scheduled vote.

Ensure the portal is accessible to all citizens and provides detailed information on each piece of legislation.

Public Voting and Comments:

Allow citizens to use their voter ID numbers to vote “yes” or “no” on each piece of legislation.

Enable citizens to submit comments and feedback on the legislation, which will be visible to their representatives and senators.

Single-Issue Legislation:

Require that all legislation be single-issue to prevent the inclusion of unrelated provisions and ensure clarity for voters.

Constituent Feedback to Representatives:

Automatically forward the voting results and comments from constituents to their respective representatives and senators.

Provide representatives and senators with a summary of their constituents’ opinions on each piece of legislation.

Transparency and Accountability:

Make the voting results and comments publicly available to ensure transparency and accountability.

Require representatives and senators to publicly respond to the feedback from their constituents.

Implementation and Security:

Develop robust security measures to protect the integrity of the voting process and ensure the privacy of citizens’ information.

Conduct regular audits and updates to the system to maintain its reliability and security.

Implementation Timeline:

Year 1: Develop and launch the online legislative portal, establish security measures, and begin public education campaigns.

Year 2: Implement the public voting and commenting system, ensure all legislation is posted online as required.

Year 3: Achieve full compliance with the policy, conduct evaluations, and make necessary adjustments.

Conclusion: By implementing this program, the United States can enhance legislative transparency, increase public participation, and ensure that elected officials are more responsive to the needs and opinions of their constituents. This policy will strengthen the democratic process and foster greater trust between the government and the public.

1 Like
397

Something like this would do so much good for our country.

It woud stop the weaponization of votes, ie “we had bill for more relief funds but party X voted against it”

Well knowing the bill had something party X would never agree to on its own merit.

I believe we should take it a step further and any bills brought forth should be brought up to the representatives then be put before their constituents before it climbs the legislative ladder. If the people who they represent dont wish to see this enacted then it is not what the people want.

Originally this is how our legislative branch was made to work, the people of a state would want to enact a policy, they would do their work with getting backers of the policy. Then it would be given to their representative to works its way to being enacted though the legislative branch.

3 Likes
398

I fully understand your point and concern. I agree that single issue voting for budgets would be great and highly transparent. However, the easiest fix would be for the individual budgets to be ironed out in the committees and have those committees be public “hearings”. Since we have 108 agencies/departments on the US federal budget, the part of this main policy proposal limiting votes per day would have them passing multi-year budgets and making things impossible to see again by listing them as discretionary budgets.

The biggest concern is artificial numbers through compliance. We see this concept in hospitals and manufacturing facilities, in hospitals it is seen by some regulatory body saying that extra money won’t be given to the hospital if their failed surgery rate doesn’t decrease or some other similar demand, this is followed by hospitals refusing the more risky procedures and therefore increasing their numbers, but the numbers didn’t increase due to better surgical teams, but due to less surgical procedures.

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399

I think the sunset clause should require a vote every year. Therefore it sunsets after one year, every year.

400

Great idea. Say good bye to 2000 page bills that are supposed to be read quickly before a vote.

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401

Regarding section #2. I can see an “Executive Summary” of what the bill is proposed to accomplish. Lawyers being what they are will twist and turn ambiguous wording into a perversion of the original intent. The meat of the bill should contain all the legal supporting references etc. When the “meat” reaches a certain number, let’s say 50 pages. Then the bill needs to be rewritten limiting its scope, perhaps, or other limiting factors to bring read time and examination time and ultimately enforcement into line. Linking bills should also be eliminated. That is, this is the first of 27 bills to bring about blah blah blah.

Regarding section #3. Plain language - please see #2 above.

Section #7. I believe there is a way that voting members can publicly vote one way and privately vote another. This practice needs to be permanently eliminated. Actually my suggestion for #7 should probably be a separate bill.

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402

The other issue with this is attaching riders and making it 1 bill. Both parties do this and riders should not be allowed