Right…A mistake. How does something get put into a bill by accident??
Get used to it people. Things like this are going to happen over and over again for at least the next two years.
I agree that once they got caught the changed it. But what if they hadn’t got caught?
Um…er…I think it’s…that is to say…
ah fuck it… :rolleyes:
I would just like to note for the record that while the Republicans are professing innocence and the Democrats are pointing fingers, nobody is really sure who did what here.
It could be that the Republicans actually tried to get away with something like this. It could be that a Democrat managed to slip it in to put some egg on the faces of the Republicans, or even to kill the bill. I’m not rushing to judgment on this one just yet, except to say that whoever put it in was pretty despicable.
As Michael Moore demonstarted in his latest film, lawmakers often don’t *read * the bills they are voting on. Someone tried to take advantage of it.
All deserve a boot to the head for not reading them.
The spending bill is 14 inches thick! I bet there’s a rider in there declaring President Bush legally dead 
Not so. It was Congressman Ernest Istook (R-OK)
It’s good to know. Now we have a subject for our ire.
If y’all believe that this Istook, an unknown congressman from OK, took it upon himself to insert this into this bill, I just have one thing to say…
Y’all wanna buy a bridge?
Important technical question here:
Can Congress repeal part of a bill merely by passing a resolution?
I can almost believe it.
Istook was one of those Gingrich Republicans who came in trying to reform America. He wasn’t unknown. He’s just ultra conservative.
Does anyone have access to the language in question? Is it possible that someone simply wanted the chairmen of these committees to have access to real records and put it in such a way as to break privacy provisions?
From the articles I am not even sure exactly what the objection is refering to.
Apparently what’s at work here is, that since the Appropriations Bill is NOT yet Law [sub]“I’m just a bill, only a bill…”[/sub], they are deciding that rather than a motion to reconsider which requires consent from the other chamber and would reopen the whole freakin’ monster, they’ll pass joint resolutions before the bill is sent up Penna. Ave., to leave without effect that part of the bill language. Must be some US-Congress kind of thing, never heard of it before – here at the commonwealth level if you catch an “oopsie” in a bill after final vote but before sending it to the Exec, you have to have a motion to reconsider (but you have a maximum number of those you can use).
“Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.”
I think the key word is agents. That could be anyone from the chairman himself, to his brothers second cousins wifes hairdresser.
You get my drift.
Absolutely, as it’s worded, they could delegate the power to their PACs.
According to the news reports I heard, this was discovered by a congressman’s staff when they read through the 3,000 page legislation. It was at about page 1,200. My impression is that many times members of the House and senators vote on bills without ever having read them carefully, if at all. So what other surprises were in this bill? And how often does something like this happen?
Istook is denying it. Claims he has no idea how his name got attached to it.
Good lord.
And we voted to keep these people in power.
Come on Brutus, Sam, Bricker… defend this shit.
I dare you.
Take a look at Asylum’s link above.
The truth IS, that on all but the most straightforward simple bills, a majority of legislators (all levels) do NOT stop to read the whole things, specially appropriations. Which is fine because you’d never get a modern budget for anything larger than a village passed if they did. (Besides, if you read the whole bill and end up not understanding jacksquat – which if you look at some bills is not that difficult to imagine – it’s the same as not reading it, plus you just wasted a whole weekend) Mostly, those who are not members of the relevant committee will rely on the report from the committee (or from their ranking member, if in the minority) to decide on how to vote on the floor – and damn many of them rely on one of their staffers doing for them an exec summary of the report. If they have a particular area-of-interest they may read up the bits that are about that and make their turn at debate be on that specific issue. It’s how it’s supposed to work; but there ARE supposed to be people in charge of looking out for things like the subject of the OP.
Now, a committee chairman or floor leader or whip who makes a habit of gratuituously pulling legislative stunts or allowing them to pass uncalled, will wind up removed from their position, or at least losing credibility to the point they’re rendered ineffective (as in, people WILL start reading everything that comes from/through them before taking any action)