Health Care Reform Bill Text - Who's Read It?

As U.S. Senators and Representatives are holding their health care town hall meetings this year, they are often asked, "Have you actually read the entire bill?" The text of the health care reform bill currently before Congress is more than 1000 pages long, so that's no small question. And we've heard before that congressional representatives don't always read bills, because they are too long, and they don't have time. So, are they reading the bill this time? And by the way, have you?

U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) said in his telephone town hall meeting that he's not only read the health care reform bill text, he wrote part of it! Blumenauer was responsible for section 1233, which addresses end of life care. You can see this section of the health care reform bill text here.

Representative Thomas Petri (R-Wisconsin) admitted at his town hall that he hasn't read the entire health care reform bill text, just the parts related to his committees. That's where I am. I've read the parts that I'm most interested in as well as the parts being attacked by opponents of the bill, so that I'll know enough to dispel the myths (no, the government is not going to try to euthanize your grandmother). I suspect this is where many of the congressional representatives are, too - although they do have staff members who can read other sections of the bill for them (hm, maybe I should outsource this to my kids?).

Is it important to read every word of the health care reform bill text? I think it's definitely important to get your information from the original source before spreading it around. But no, I don't think I would read every word of the 1000+ pages. Much of it, for instance, consists of definitions of terminology used elsewhere in the bill. Some of it I don't even understand.

But that's me, an average citizen. Should the rules be different for congressional representatives?

Yes, I think there is rightfully a higher expectation for our elected representatives. It's their job to know about, work on, and vote on the legislation. Therefore they should make more of an effort than the average person. But I think it's also acceptable to assign portions of the legislation to staff members to study, as long as the representative takes time to thoroughly review the staff member's findings. I'd also expect representatives to personally review portions of the legislation that constituents are particularly concerned about.

The full health care reform bill text is available at OpenCongress.org.