Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss
January 12th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Well, the House has new rules and they look surprisingly like the old rules. The only concession the leadership seems to have made to demands for a cleaner process is that now all votes on third reading, which is final passage, will be public. West Texas Democrat Rep. Pete Gallego also managed to add a rule that makes the text of all amendments public as they are being debated on the floor. This service is already provided to lobbyists who can afford to pay for it. Inconsequential as it may sound, Burt Solomons, who carried the rules bill, put up a terrific fight against it.
Meanwhile, wireless Internet in the House, preventing those under indictment from being in the chamber or the back hall, forcing public disclosure of business dealings with lobbyists or fellow members, and mandating that bills with 100 co-signers or more automatically go straight to the floor—among other good-government provisions—all failed to pass.
