When Congress dashes through important legislation — and one of the best examples in this category is probably the USA PATRIOT Act — even lawmakers don’t get the full grasp of all the details in a timely fashion. Part of the problem lies within simple access and the ability to have a discussion and propose edits to the latest iteration of the document before it gets to be voted on. How difficult can it be in this day and age?
Any of us who had an opportunity to work with or within government agencies know that few things are easy in the world of government IT security. Of course, the bill was going through changes on almost an hourly basis at certain points last week, but what can be better than social media and the web to keep up with changes and updates coming at a fast pace? Is it possible to understand all the implications and magnitude of the proposed measures when you have little or no time to review the bill before the vote? And how can one expect to have a meaningful public discourse on a document that is nowhere to be found?
As far as I know, the full version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was not available online until late last week, but thanks in part to Sunlight Foundation and its PublicMarkup.org initiative, the latest version of the bill is now available either as a PDF or via ISSUU (highly recommended).
There’s no question that government should be absolutely transparent in review of any legislation that has long-term implications for everyone in this country, and it’s mind-boggling to think that even within Congress not everyone receives their copy of the bill on time… but even if they do, do they print it out?