Wednesday, December 12, 2001
|
Wednesday, December 12, 2001 |
|
Move the process back into the sunlight By DAVE HAMRICK You need to be aware of a behind-the-scenes debate in Washington. It's a microcosm of a much larger debate that should be taking place but isn't. Congress is trying to decide whether to give President Bush "fast track" negotiating authority to move trade agreements with other countries along more quickly. It sounds quite reasonable. If it's enacted, basically a fast track trade bill would go through Congress without the opportunity for amendments. Debate over all the amendments can slow things down, and the trade deal could get muddied up in the process. To understand why it's not such a good idea, you have to understand how things are done in Washington behind the scenes where you and I often never find out the details. Suppose, hypothetically, that the president works out a trade deal with the tiny kingdom of Allheckistan, opening up a market for beard trimmers primarily manufactured on the West Coast. He puts together a bill and launches it into Congress. But Rep. Ida Wanna from the Midwest wants to include some provisions so manufacturers of sand sifters from her state could also get a piece of the pie. But under fast track legislation, this bill cannot be amended. It can only be passed or killed. The president wants Ida's vote, so how does he get it? He tells one of his water-carriers in the House to get with Ida and promise her a $150 million appropriation for a tractor museum in her district in next year's appropriations bill. And Ida goes along with it, even though the sand sifter manufacturers will miss out, because it's better than nothing. And when you add up the hundreds of times this happens every year, what you end up with is several billion dollars worth of pork that you and I will have to pay for because of these back-room deals. I have long argued that the lawmaking process should be cleaned up by passage of a constitutional amendment prohibiting any amendments attached to any bill if the amendment has absolutely nothing to do with the aims of the bill. Congress regularly takes popular legislation and loads it down with items that couldn't get through otherwise, and thus we take every good idea and load it down with bad ideas. But amending legislation is not only the constitutional right of the Congress ... it's the constitutional duty of the Congress. No bill should ever be exempt. Here's the larger concern: Over the decades Congress has amassed a whole tool shed full of similar devices that help our representatives get things done through deal-making rather than debate. Legislation gets passed without the bothersome necessity of defending it on its merits with the public looking on. And that, dear readers, is a large part of why our freedoms are eroding and the government is becoming more and more bloated every day.
|
||