Buck, Polis, Garrett Introduce Resolution to Establish a Mandatory Review Period for All Legislation

Statement

Today, Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO), Jared Polis (D-CO), and Tom Garrett (R-VA) introduced the Review Every Act Diligently In Total (READ IT) Resolution to amend House rules to establish a mandatory minimum review period for all legislation that is brought to a vote.

This Resolution would ensure that the text of any bill, resolution, joint resolution, or conference report would be available for a minimum number of minutes equal to two times the number of pages from the time new text is released until the time of the Floor vote.

"Having only a few hours to read and digest huge bills is an absurd way to run a government. You'd be upset if your teacher assigned War and Peace in the morning and tested you on it later that afternoon. You should be upset at Congress when we vote on legislation that we haven't even read. That's why the READ IT Resolution is so important," said Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO).

"It's a sad state of affairs that this even has to be said, but Members of Congress should absolutely have time to read legislation before voting," said Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO). "It's an affront to the people we serve that too often our elected officials aren't even given the time to read legislation. Congress is broken, and this is one of the reasons why. Let's get to work (and let's get to reading) and fix it," concluded Polis.

"Our Founding Fathers created a representative democracy. It follows that elected legislators can't adequately represent their constituents' views if their representatives don't have the chance to weigh in on a bill or let alone an opportunity to review it. The READ IT Resolution is an effort to give members of the House the chance to be a truly deliberative and representative institution. This will create a more transparent government and give our House colleagues on both sides of the aisle ample opportunity to advance legislation with full knowledge of its implications," said Congressman Tom Garrett (R-VA).

Read the full text of the READ IT Resolution HERE.

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