Not that fact-finding or seeking opinions (particularly divergent ones) is a priority in the Republican-controlled House. Most of Pombo's committee hearings, for instance, are stacked to give majority witnesses a 3-1 advantage over minority ones.
Even the Bush administration's role in the committee process is diminishing. Administration views should be -- and used to be -- routinely sought. After all, who better than executive branch specialists to assess the merits and effects of a bill? Yet compressed committee timetables in the House often preclude administration input. The administration's views, like the public's, are apparently expendable to shield the Republican agenda from debate.
To further keep the public in the dark and expedite the passage of controversial legislation, House Republicans employ another technique: They mark up drafts of bills without holding any public hearings. This means no record of committee action, no legislative history, no opportunity for filing dissenting views, no Congressional Budget Office analysis of a bill's effect on spending, no recorded votes -- all those things we normally associate with an open and accountable democratic process.
In 2003, the 50-page Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which mandated sweeping changes in the nation's forest policies, was a draft bill marked up by Pombo's committee. As Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) complained at the mark-up session, "What concerns me ... is the way this legislation is being brought before this committee. The committee print of this bill was received in my office during a recess period, on a Friday afternoon before it was scheduled to be marked up in committee a mere five days later. [And] ... this committee did not even hold any hearings on the bill before proceeding straight to mark-up."
The legislative route the Healthy Forests Restoration Act took was no aberration. The eviscerated committee process in the GOP-controlled House is designed to get such radical legislation to the floor for a vote. To help ensure passage of controversial bills, the powerful House Rules Committee, contrary to traditional practices, routinely restricts floor debate and limits opportunities for Democratic-sponsored amendments. In the process, democracy is being dismantled.
