Categories
Join Us At:
|
Congress-ese: A Suspension of...Rules The suspension calendar is used in the House of Representatives to quickly pass (usually) non-controversial bills (for example, bills authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the Greater Washington Soap Box Derby, designating July as National Watermelon Month, or designating July 26, 2008 as National Day of the American Cowboy). Suspension, in this case, refers to suspending normal congressional procedure rules (not suspending children from school). In this streamlined process, a bill that comes up may be debated by Congress for up to 40 minutes, but may not be amended (changed) and requires two-thirds of the representatives to vote in favor of it for passage. A bill on the suspension calendar will usually pass by “voice vote” — in which all in favor say “aye” and all opposed say “no”. When a bill passes (or fails) by voice vote, there is no recorded roll call, so constituents have no way of finding out how their Representative voted. So we'll never know how all the House members feel about watermelons, evidently.
Tags: Civil Liberties News, Congress-ese, lawmaking
We intend the comments portion of this blog to be a forum where you can freely express your views on blog postings and on comments made by other people. Given that, please understand that you are responsible for the material you post on the comments portion of this blog. The only postings that we ask that you refrain from posting and that we cannot permit on our website are requests for legal assistance and postings that could cause ACLU to incur legal liability.
One important law in that regard is the prohibition on politically partisan activity. Given our nonprofit status, we may not endorse or oppose candidates for elective office. That means we cannot host comments on our site that show a preference for one candidate or party. Although we in no way wish to discourage you from that activity elsewhere, we ask that you not engage in that activity on our website (or include links to other websites that do so). Additionally, given that we are subject to very specific rules concerning the collection of personally identifying information through our website (names, email addresses, home address, financial information, etc.), we ask that you not use the comments portion of this blog to solicit this information from users of our website. We also ask that you not use the comments portion for advertising or requests for legal assistance, and do not add to your comment links to other websites, as we cannot be responsible for the content on other websites. We are not able to respond to unsolicited inquiries, complaints or requests for assistance sent to this blog. Please direct your complaint or request for assistance to the ACLU affiliate in your state. Requests for legal assistance left in the blog comments will not receive a response or be published. Finally, the ACLU cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information in the comment section and expressly disclaims any liability for any information in this section. 7 Responses to "Congress-ese: A Suspension of...Rules" |
|
|
© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 |
Sep 4th, 2008 at 6:39am
How about some of the more important terms, like "allinfavorsayayeallopposedsaynotheayeshaveit"?
This series needs some realism about how Congress actually works, not the cleaned up high school civics version.
Sep 4th, 2008 at 8:12pm
Did you know that this is how the Adam Walsh Act was passed?
Sep 6th, 2008 at 9:57pm
Why does the ACLU allow child molesters on thier Registry? Billie Jay Wintrode
& Marsha McDonald Are Child molesters They Both molested 2 of my childhood friends and got away with it. Loving parents they are not.
Sep 7th, 2008 at 10:19am
I have no intention of joining or supporting in any way any organization that has communication only one way. To the masses : >!
I have been dictated to all my life thankyou and when I have asked for help what I got was food and temporary shelter sounds like a lot, but I still have no support and plenty of denial out of the woodwork.
This blog is not the ACLU it does not represent the ACLU is not fostered or supported by the ACLU but is a pressure valve to be used by folks who have no recourse to anything resembling justice.
You may lie to yourselves but YOU CANNOT LIE TO ME!! I have had 40 years of your bullshit after Viet Nam that has shown me you do nothing you help no one and most of all god help the Veterans of your fucking wars.
Mar 19th, 2009 at 11:04am
Dear Concerned Citizen don't you think your comments were unfair and slanderous? You accused two people of a truly heinous act without evidence or proof. Isn’t the ACLU supposed to to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States? Shouldn’t you have offered facts or details when making such accusations? You sound more like somoene who has a grudge against two people and are just trying to harm them with your lies.
Jun 1st, 2009 at 5:49pm
I do know that there was an incident where Mr. Wintrode, & Ms. Mcdonald were accused of molesting a child, which is why they moved so many times. I do know he left a wife & 6 kids and never was made to pay child support.
So outraged Citizen how can you take a molesters side or that of an abused child without looking into the facts yourself.
The Concerned Citizen appently cares very much for her friend and her friend probaly doesn't even know that this was put on here.
Two peoples lives are runied I don't believe anyone can be so visous as to spread a horrable rumer such as this.
I believe what goes around comes around, and I just heard recently that, Mr. Wintrode died of cancer a few weeks back. I believe you suffer, to pay for the sins,that you yourself created in your lifetime.
In this case, I guess mr. Wintrode is paying for whatever sins he created in life. The only person who will be judge & jury is God himself.
Jul 17th, 2009 at 11:52am
Dear Concerned and Interested Citizens,
I wish I could believe both of you but without proof how can I? I am aware of Mr. Wintrode's life and what he left behind all those years ago. But I was raised to believe in innocent until proven and since you have not proven anything to me why would I believe.
Yes he did pass away and I was there when it happened and I have very mixed feelings. I also believe that when we pass we have to face our sins in front of god. But I keep going back to this accusation and find it so difficult to accept...I'm sorry but to me child molestation is the sickest crime out there and to believe without more information....it's just too difficult.
I wish you could give me more proof so I could find this out for myself. A year? A state? Anything that will help me. I would like to find out if it's true.