For the last umpteen months, Sunlight has been promoting legislation that implores legislators to “read the bill“: requiring legislation and conference reports to be made available on the Internet for 72 hours prior to consideration. In recent weeks, much ado has been made over the length of the various health care legislative proposals, and whether 72 hours is enough time to read the legislation. In response, the Associated Press has examined claims that the proposed legislation is longer than War and Peace.
Its conclusion:
The bill passed by the House is 319,145 words. The Senate bill is 318,512 words, shorter than the House version despite consuming more paper. Various versions of Tolstoy’s novel are 560,000 to 670,000 words.
In normal typeface, the legislation, according to AP, is 209 pages. It’s no lightweight, but both the House and Senate versions were made available online for 72 hours, and hopefully the final reconciled legislation (if such legislation emerges) will be available for 72 hours as well.
If we can do this for health care legislation, despite the controversy surrounding it, why not for everything else?
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