U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein responding re "Read the Bill"

Senator Feinstein, though I often disagree with her voting posture, it should be noted to her credit that she usually responds to faxes and email requests albeit canned or personal. -- rfh

 ----- Original Message -----

From: senator@feinstein.senate.gov

To: rharrold at harrold dot org

Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 11:45 AM

Subject: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein responding to your message

Dear Mr. Harrold:

      Thank you for contacting my office to express support for legislation which would require bills to be read in their entirety before they are considered in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

      Like you, I believe it is important that Senators and Representatives have a full understanding of bills considered in Congress.  I make sure that I thoroughly understand the full implications of each piece of legislation before I vote.  Further, it is important that Congress works to increase public trust in elected officials and the legislative system. You may be interested to know that I was an original cosponsor of the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 (S. 1), which was introduced on January 4, 2007 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

      This legislation makes it more difficult to add earmarks and riders into legislation by requiring that all earmarks included in bills, joint resolutions, committee reports and conference reports be disclosed, along with the name of the Members who sponsored them. This information must be posted publicly on the Internet for at least 48 hours before legislation is considered on the Senate floor. I am pleased to say that on August 2, 2007, the Senate approved S. 1 by a vote of 83-14 and on September 14, 2007, President Bush signed this legislation into law (Public Law No. 110-81).

Please know that my staff and I carefully review all legislation that comes before me. I take a number of factors into consideration when deciding how to cast my vote on a piece of legislation, including the best interest of our State and the Nation as a whole, constituent input, and recommendations from my staff. You can be assured that I perform my due diligence before every vote I cast.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have further questions or comments, please contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

                                                          Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein        United States SenatorFurther information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.

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