WSJ: House Readies a Constitution Moment

Here's the biggest change, one that was broken again and again by the Democrats.

The Republicans weren't even allowed to read the healthcare overhaul bill before the Christmas Eve vote last year.
I'd say that's rather ludicrous!

–All bills must be online for three days before a floor vote, to ensure everyone has a chance to read them.
–All bills and amendments must be posted online. Other disclosure rules including posting lawmakers' attendance records and video of hearings online.

By Patrick O'Connor

For those members of Congress who need a refresher course on the Constitution, Speaker-designate John Boehner has reserved the right to have it read aloud on the floor the day after he's sworn in on Jan. 6.

That tidbit comes from the new House rules package that Republicans released Thursday morning. Every two years, the majority has a chance to rewrite the rules that govern the chamber. Those changes are more dramatic when control shifts from one party to the other, as is happening this time.

The rules package, as outlined by aides, incorporates much of what Republicans laid out in the Pledge to America, including new procedural hurdles for deficit spending.

One of the biggest of those hurdles is a rule that the House will no longer recognize tax increases as a way of offsetting new spending in entitlement programs, like Medicare and Social Security. The president's health-care bill would have been almost impossible to pass if Democrats had been forced to meet that standard.

The full House must approve the rules, and it is expected to do so on Jan. 5, the day the new Congress is sworn in.

Other highlights include a ban on former lawmakers who register as lobbyists from using the House gym, and the reinstatement of a six-year term limit on committee chairmen.

For a longer list of proposed changes, click past the jump.

Other highlights include:
–Preserve the Office of Congressional Ethics, an outside body with limited authority to recommend investigations of lawmakers and their staff, and rename the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (known to most as the "ethics committee") as the Committee on Ethics.
–Members will have to cite the constitutional authority that allows them to introduce each bill and joint resolution they introduce.
–Rescind a rule that automatically raises the country's borrowing limit with passage of the annual budget agreement
–Committee name changes: The Committee on Education and Labor will become the Committee on Education and Workforce, and the Committee on Science and Technology will become the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
–All bills must be online for three days before a floor vote, to ensure everyone has a chance to read them.
–All bills and amendments must be posted online. Other disclosure rules including posting lawmakers' attendance records and video of hearings online.
–Create a new procedural hurdle for any measure that would increase the deficit by $5 billion or more over 10 years.

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