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House Voting More Often in the Wee Hours
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| Contributor | Servo |
| Last Edited | Servo Dec 21, 2005 11:17am |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Dec 20, 2005 11:15am |
| Description | It was well past midnight yesterday, and the food outside the sumptuous Capitol suites of the House Republican leadership was piling up, a smorgasbord of Chinese dishes, piles of pizza, and cartons of Mrs. Fields cookies. House lawmakers casually dined as they waited for their final votes, knowing full well they still had a long night ahead of them.
Those votes -- on a sweeping budget-cutting measure and a defense bill that also would open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling -- did not come until practically the break of dawn. But that was nothing new for a House that has taken its most controversial votes in recent years under the cloak of darkness -- well past the deadlines for the evening news or the morning paper.
In no way do House leaders mean to hide their actions from the public, said Ron Bonjean, a spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Each case is different, but never were the late-night votes planned.
But Democrats see a pattern here, and they were not about to attribute it to a diligent Republican work ethic. "Republican policy is so out of touch with mainstream Americans that they have to pass their legislation in the dead of night," said Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). |
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