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Dent: Let the cameras come into Rules Committee meetings
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
03/16/10 5:46 PM EDT
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent is renewing his call for the House Rules Committee to allow cameras to record the panel's meetings.
Dent's proposal comes as House Democrats appear set to move forward later this week to approve Obamacare using the Slaughter Solution. That's a controversial rule that would allow the lower chamber to "deem" the Senate version of health care reform to have been passed by the House, but without actually voting on the measure.
Known as a "self-executing" rule, the approach has been used in the past but never on legislation approaching the grand scope as Obamacare.
Dent says the rules panel, which Slaughter chairs, should let the sun shine in during its proceedings:
“The Rules Committee will be the first committee to review reconciliation policy that will have significant and long-lasting effects on the lives of the American people and our economy. Moreover, the actions of the Rules Committee will be a major factor in determining the outcome of this process.
"Recent reports have indicated that Chairwoman Slaughter will attempt to craft a procedural rule in the Committee that would, in effect, allow the Senate health care legislation to pass without even a direct up or down vote. The American people deserve to see what their elected representatives are doing behind the closed doors of the Rules Committee.”
“The Speaker has plainly warned the American public 'we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it' – a view of the democratic process I find reprehensible. The Speaker and her allies are bending the rules to the point, I believe, they may be broken, all because she lacks the votes to pass this legislation honestly. House leadership has broken faith with the American people, and I hope to begin restoring that faith by shedding sunlight on these shadowy procedures.”
This is not Dent's first swing of the bat on the issue. Last October, he introduced H.Res. 869, calling on the House's chief administrative officer to put the cameras in the rules panel hearing room to record and broadcast its sessions. The resolution has 80 co-sponsors and has been bottled up in the House Committee on Administration, according to THOMAS.
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Topics
Rep. Charlie Dent , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter , House Committee on Administration , Politics , Congress , Obamacare , Health care reformFollow The Examiner
