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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
Many congressman have said it would be impossible to read the whole thing. who wrote it?
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!
8 Answers
- Joe FinkleLv 71 decade agoFavorite 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.
Source(s): Used to work in the office of Counsel to the Council of the City of New York. I knew people whose job it was to write the bills and studied the process of third parties submitting potential bills to the legislature. My duties included legal research into the potential consequences of proposed legislation (or sometimes legislation that had not yet been proposed but was being considered). - suspendmyaccountLv 41 decade ago
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.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
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?
- BillLv 71 decade ago
I agree with blue317, one thing for sure whoever is writing these bills does NOT have our best interest in mind.
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- Anonymous1 decade ago
When our elected official complain that it's too hard to read something I get embarrassed for America.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
The teleprompter!
- blue317Lv 61 decade ago
CZARS...with marxist backgrounds...
UNIONS....with their own needs...
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS...for their own greed