What happened to open government?
I was thrilled to see that Congress had passed another COVID relief bill. Finally, Congress was through the election impasse and now American citizens in distress would benefit as the relief bill was passed. Then I started to get the details.
The bill passed by Congress is not just like a Christmas tree, highly decorated; it is 5,593 pages. That is longer than the book I am currently reading, “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.” Over 10,000 years of history in 321 pages. Granted, wider margins and bigger type, but still, 17 times longer.
What is in there? Apparently not shrimp on a treadmill, as in a previous stimulus bill. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desire for an anti-doping law for horse racing made it. And a lot of other riders.
I understand the value of “log rolling” in, one, getting support for a bill, and, two, finding a way to get some local need met. Lowell has benefitted from such activities, from our National
Park to getting bridges fixed.
However, to spring, apparently out of nowhere, a bill nearly 60,000 pages long, and pass it in a couple of hours seems disrespectful to the American voter. Sure, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi says: “We represent them.” However, representation means, to me, interaction. Our representatives in Congress shouldn’t take their perception of our problems and then walk off and act on them. They should ask for our participation. Not the 435 members of Congress, acting together, in isolation. We need the involvement of all the people.
The problem isn’t isolated to Capitol Hill, in our nation’s capital. We see it on Beacon Hill. I am very pleased that we have a police reform bill about to become law. But, I am not happy about the bill being concocted in secret over 100 days of committee meetings. That is not the open legislative process I had envisioned when I moved to this commonwealth. President Woodrow Wilson, in his first of 14 points, called for “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.”
That is my inspiration. Open laws, openly arrived at.
With a new legislative session starting in a few days, both here and in Washington, it is time for the people, supported by their media, to call on their representatives to have a more open process for hearings and for writing and passing laws.