All but five* Senate Democrats voted against an amendment, “To increase transparency by requiring five days of public review of legislation before passage by the Senate.” This simply states that bills that are rushed through the Senate would have to garner 60 votes only if they had not been posted online for five days. The irony of the Democrat’s opposition is this measure is taken directly from the Obama presidential campaign. President Obama promised more transparency in the government by posting bills online for citizens to review prior to a vote. Apparently all Democratic Senators except, Senators Bayh, Nelson, Landrieu, Klobuchar, and McCaskill disagree with this increased transparency. This measure doesn’t exclude a majority vote on any bill it simply protects against slipping measures into a bill without an adequate review, a protection against situations like the AIG bonus fiasco. It would be interesting to hear the individual Senator’s reasons for opposing transparency, and if the President is planning to stick to his campaign promise of putting bills online for review prior to a vote.
More information on the Cornyn Transparency Amendment
* Initially reported three Democratic Senators voted for the amendment, it was actually five. Senators Landrieu and Klobuchar were the two missed.
** Now another vote against transparency 9/24/09 - Democrats’ Second Vote Agaginst Transparency
Filed under: Independent, Moderate, Obama, Politics, democrats, republicans | Tagged: cornyn ammendment, ethics reform, government transparency, obama transparency, senate transparency
Unless I’m missing something, looking at the vote totals it appears there were actually five cross-over Democrats, not three. Bayh, Klobuchar, Landrieu, McCaskill, and Nelson.
Still shameful there were any, but still.
Whoops, I meant “Still shameful there weren’t more”
Thanks Eric - Sorry about the mistake.
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[...] Posted on September 24, 2009 by kmorrison33 For the second time this year the Democrats have voted against transparency andby voting against posting a bill online 72 hours before it the vote. Transparency was a huge [...]
[...] the second time this year the Democrats have voted against transparency and by voting against posting a bill online 72 hours before it the vote. Transparency was a huge [...]