Montanans Want Time to Read Final Health Care & Climate Change Bills Before Passage

To:  Montana Congressional Delegation

In Montana, September 15th, 2009 a petition for adequate time to review the bills of Congress before they become law.

Montanans require three weeks to review proposed health care and climate change legislation before Congressman Rehberg and Senators Baucus and Tester vote for such legislation.

To preserve our freedom and liberty, to improve the quality of government, to ensure accountability to the people, and to make government more responsive to the needs of the people, the acts of Congress deserve and require the scrutiny of concerned citizens.

The length and complexity of bills, their extraordinary scope and reach, and potential to significantly alter the daily lives, well-being, and prosperity of Montanans demands that we are afforded the opportunity to be knowledgeable about proposed legislation.

To restore faith in the Congress and our leaders, Montanans must have confidence in the intent and quality of proposed legislation.

Rushing through legislation under the pretext that extraordinary times require emergency measures is cynical and has become too commonplace. Consider:

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was $700 billion bailout bill to rescue Wall Street. The House first considered the bill in September 2008 and many complained about the rush and voted it down. A few days later the Senate revived a revised bill and that same day, both the Senate and the House approved it.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the "stimulus" bill, was meant to create jobs and jump start the ailing economy. The $789 billion price tag packed into 1,100-pages became available to the public 13 hours before Congress began considering it.

The Congress is currently debating health care reform based on America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (HR 3200 weighing in at 1017 pages) which is a wholesale recreation of how health care is provided in America. When the Senate acts, Montanans deserve the opportunity to review the proposed legislation.

The Congress is currently debating The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454 is 1427 pages) that proposes fundamental changes to how America uses energy. This bill touches literally every aspect of how Americans work and recreate. This bill will determine America’s competitiveness in the global economy for this and future generations. When the Senate acts, Montanans deserve the opportunity to review the proposed legislation.

Three weeks is a reasonable period of time for a reasonable person to be reasonably knowledgeable about proposed legislation.

Therefore, we the undersigned, urge Congressman Rehberg and Senators Baucus and Tester to vote “No” on any health care or climate change legislation where Montanans have not been given three weeks to review it.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Montanans Want Time to Read Final Health Care & Climate Change Bills Before Passage Petition to Montana Congressional Delegation was created by Montana Growth Network and written by Jason Priest (jason@montanagrowthnetwork.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.