In My Opinion Reading is a lost art among lawmakers

Maybe it’s time candidates pass a literacy test before taking public office.

Most of us are likely under the assumption that legislators or someone in their office, at least, reads proposed bills and understands them before a vote is taken.

In reality, though, most legislators don’t even read the bills; they claim there’s just not enough time. So they rely on staff, special interest groups or their own political party experts to educate them and, ultimately, to influence how they vote.

Welcome to the new, corrosive politics in America. It’s yet another example of how the voice of the people is being silenced by the prosperous and the powerful.

Under the U.S Constitution and that of the State of Michigan, every bill must be publicly read three times in the Legislature before it may be passed. Because many bills can consist of thousands of pages, the courts have held that reading the bill’s title, not the entire document, can satisfy this requirement. Nowhere in the federal or state constitution or in related documents does it explicitly mention, though, that reading and understanding the legislation is necessary to the lawmaking process.

That’s why there have been calls that legislators be required to read a bill before they vote – even though some feel that adding a “read-the-bill” requirement could, in fact, lead to poorer quality legislation. The late U.S. representative from Detroit, John Conyers, was famous for saying, “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

I understand that frustration, but I also feel that packing so much into these bills is nothing more than an excuse for politicians and their backers to rush the process and bury items in a bill that, once passed, will satisfy their own agendas.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., read enough of the recently-approved infrastructure bill to vote against it became he maintained that it will “cost taxpayers $1.2 trillion, $550 billion in new spending. This is not an infrastructure bill when only 23 percent of the new spending in the bill is for actual infrastructure.”

Kennedy was lucky he could even find those details given, as he said, that “the bill is 2,700 pages, twice as long as the Bible, and we were only given a few days to read it.”

But that’s what happens when Congressional leaders push through massive legislation with little or no oversight. Special interest groups and legislators looking for payoffs to their states or donors push these bills through Congress with little or no real understanding of their consequences.

No longer do we see the long debates on the merits of major legislation in open session where the public and reporters can follow the debates to vet the bills. To protect our democracy and take petty politics out of the system, taxpayers should demand that, before a bill goes up for final passage, every legislator sign an official document stating that he or she has read the bill in its entirety before the final vote. That would slow down the process and possibly reduce the “add-ons” to bills that, most of the time, have nothing to do with the original legislation, but are mere payoffs to other legislators to get their support for a bill.

We’ve experienced some of the same issues here in Michigan where, for nearly a decade, legislators tried to reform the no-fault auto insurance law. Every year, the attempt failed, with little hope for a fix that would reduce auto insurance rates while still giving a high level of coverage to accident victims.

“It failed in a really kind of embarrassing fashion to the insurance industry,” says personal injury attorney Steve Sinas of the Michigan-based Sinas Dramis Law Firm.

Sinas added that, when Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took office, the Republican Party made it no secret that auto insurance reform was its No. 1 priority.

The Republicans brought in experts like Sinas to learn more about the topic, but there was no movement on the issue. Then, one day in early May 2021, they suddenly had a bill. At 2 a.m., the no-fault auto insurance bill passed through the House without a public hearing, Sinas said. A few weeks later, the Senate passed its own bill, again without public hearing. And a few weeks after that, both the House and the Senate passed a collective, finalized bill that cemented the changes in the new no-fault auto insurance law.

Sinas was in the state Capitol the day the bill was passed into law. He called it a “chaotic scene” with people cramming together and yelling, “Where’s the bill?” Then the elevator doors opened and a stack of the 120-page bills rolled out on a cart.

No one had time to read the bill before it was passed. The Legislature didn’t hold a public hearing. The bill was passed and, in one day, the no-fault auto-insurance industry changed the future.

“This is why people get screwed over when governments pass laws that they don’t even understand without time for public comment,” Sinas said. “And then the political parties convince everybody just to say yes, just because they think it’s in their best political interest to do so.”

But that’s how the system works: It’s not about what’s in the best interest of most taxpayers, it’s about inside power and persuasion from special interest groups and financial supporters who win in the end. Michigan had one of the best insurance programs in the nation. Did it need some adjustments? Yes.

But, due to the fact there wasn’t any public comment time, catastrophically-injured auto accident victims requiring 24-hour care ended up getting written out of the law. Under the new law, payments to their caregivers were reduced by as much as 55 percent, making it financially impossible to continue the level of care they were getting.

If legislators had been required to read the bill prior to voting, they might have seen the flaws. If public hearings had taken place, industry experts would have been given a chance to point out the devastating consequences if the bill was passed.

The Sunlight Foundation, a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization has been joined by major news outlets calling for “Read the Bill” legislation that would require legislators to read and understand what they’re voting on before they raise their hands. This is not just needed, it should be required by every legislator at every level of government.

Our reporters have attended meetings where elected officials open their agenda packets for the first time. These are the packets sent to them days in advance that contain the background and information they need before they take action. Their flawed defense for coming to a meeting unprepared is that someone else in their organization is reading the information and is informed about the issue. This is unacceptable.

Elected officials should be required to do their jobs or step aside and let more serious candidates take on the job of representing the people who placed that responsibility on their shoulders.

That’s why we’ve continued to report on the no-fault insurance bill changes in Michigan. Without debate and proper public comment, a piece of legislation was enacted and it changed the level of care these accident victims get.

“Read the Bill” should become law. Reading only a bill’s title or allowing a committee or special interest group to determine what’s in the best interests of residents is unacceptable.

It’s time elected officials accept personal responsibility for their votes – or resign.