House GOP Violates 72-Hour Pledge For Second Time

House Speaker John Boehner promised that the Republicans would put all bills on line at least 72 hours before floor debates to give the public time to read them. That pledge was violated when they voted on a bill to defund NPR, and now they’ve done it again by voting on the Government Shutdown Prevention Act.

The Government Shutdown Prevention Act, a bill that deems the budget cutting bill passed by the House earlier this year to have passed Congress without the Senate’s assent, was introduced on March 30 at 1:13 pm. At the present moment, this bill has not been available for even 48 hours.

The House majority sent the bill to be approved for floor debate by the House Rules Committee under emergency rules. The NPR defunding bill was also considered by the House Rules Committee in an emergency session.

Calling a bill an “emergency” is one way around the 72-hour rule. Never mind that anyone who knows the alphabet also knows you can’t deem a bill to have passed without the approval of Congress and the president’s signature. Boehner made great pains to criticize Democrats for not making bills available for 72 hours, and pledged that wouldn’t be the case when Republicans ran things.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.