Who writes these Bills? If no one has or can;t read it all because its to long. Who is actualy writing them?
I am curious as to the answer
2009-11-20T09:23:35Z
Many congressman have said it would be impossible to read the whole thing. who wrote it?
2009-11-20T09:51:54Z
So staffers with the help of lobbyest write the bills? What a shame , I remeber back in the days of Howard Hughs that senators were ran out of congress for having bills written by special interests. Now this corruption is part of the process??
Even more reason for me to think that its almost time for another REVOLUTION!
Joe Finkle2009-11-20T09:39:07Z
Favorite Answer
It depends on the bill. Usually, congressional staffers. Some bills are written by outside interests, such as lobbyists and special interest groups and then submitted to members of congress for their staff to review and modify if they feel it merits such attention.
The authorship is credited to one or more members of congress. The staff for their offices are generally among the most significant authors of any legislation.
All members of congress have staff. It is the job of the staff to read and digest the bill and make sure their boss understands it and knows the implications of a vote in either direction. No individual can practically read a long bill from cover to cover and understand it, but their various staff experts in different areas, especially combines with the staff of other congressmen that they trust can fully digest any bill in a reasonably short amount of time. It's only when amendments are added and voted on at the last minute (like the Stupak Amendment) that there's any real excuse for misunderstanding them. Otherwise, if someone doesn't understand the bill, they didn't do their job.
EDIT: "Special interests" can be nefarious, but they aren't always. The Sierra Club, for example, will write environmental legislation and propose it to members of congress who tend to agree with the Sierra Club's positions. They are in a better position to know what laws are needed in order to protect the environment than the members of congress themselves and I see nothing wrong with them making the suggestions.
When there's money involved (which there often is, and lots of it), then you run into problems because you get members of congress championing a bill because it will get them campaign financing that they cannot win without, whether the bill is a good idea or not and you end up with bills put forward that help a special interest to the detriment of society. For example, about 4 years ago the Republicans passed a health care discount card system written by the drug makers. The bill provided discount cards, but also removed the restrictions on drug pricing. The result was that even after the discounts are applied, the prices are significantly higher. Republicans receive about 10 times the amount of funding from drug makers as Democrats do. That is no coincidence.
Which bill are you talking about? Ron Paul's Amendment Passes Committee? The House Financial Services Committee earlier today rejected Representative Mel Watt's attempt to hijack Audit the Fed by voting 43-26 to pass Ron Paul's amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill.
Anybody willing to help Ron Paul audit the fed? Tell your representative you want a standalone vote on audit the fed H.R. 1207. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/congre…
Ultimately, attorneys who work for congress and lobbyist groups write the bills.
They are written in "legalese" for a reason.
How many members of congress are attorneys and are claiming they cannot understand the bill? Isn't this what they were paid to do when they worked in the private sector?