Doug Henwood wrote:
>I just heard from a friend of mine that the big U.S. federal budget bill
>was essentially a secret document. She heard that among the 4 votes against
>the bill was that of my personal Congressperson (and hers), Jerry Nadler.
>She called Nadler's office to find out why. It was because Nadler couldn't
>get a copy of the actual bill, and he won't vote for anything he hasn't
>read. One of his staffers called a staffer on the House Appropriations
>Committee, and even the Appropriations Committee staff couldn't get a copy.
>
>As far as I know, this is unprecedented at the federal level. State
>legislatures act this way, but this seems to be a new low in federal
>budget-making.
The California legislature operates this way. The electric utility
restructuring Bill pass the Assembly 71 to 0, yet none of them had seen the
Bill. This was a Bill authorizing $5 billion (yes, billion) in
"Infrastructure Bonds" -- money to be handed to the investor-owned
utilities in early pay-down of the depreciation (and future) costs of the
nuclear and other plants. So, California legislators, at least, vote
without seeing the Bills.
Gene Coyle
