I n recent weeks, I have read or heard members of the House and Senate attempt to exculpate voting for bad portions of important legislation by confessing that they did not read it in its entirety. I hear such excuses from students to whom I respond that it is not necessary to complete required material to take an exam, just to pass it. Students who continually fail to complete required work are placed on academic probation. If students do not remedy bad performance, they are dismissed from college.
Congress should be more like college. Upon presenting legislation before the House or the Senate, senators and congressmen presenting the legislation would be required to take an exam demonstrating that they know what it proposes. Exams should be given as legislation passes through committee and as it is placed before each chamber. I recommend one question per page of legislation. Representatives who do not pass the test at any stage cannot vote on the legislation. A bill would require a majority vote of all members on a committee or the full chamber regardless of the number or representatives that fail the exam. Representatives that do not pass at a rate of 70% will be placed on probation and all registered voters will be notified via public announcements and mail. Representatives that do not improve their performance to a 70% pass rate or above will not be able to run for another term.
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I agree to this idea of college and congress. Although, we the people vote these political leaders into the important postions. Therefore, if they are having to take a test to complete their job throughly, then what does that say and the person, let alone we the people that voted them into office. I believe in this case that the congressman was trying to make excuses for his opinion to appeal to the people and press, instead of his own opinion.
ReplyDeleteLisa Byram Bruceville-Eddy High School!
go eagles! HA
Interesting idea...But the overall impression it has on myself, is that the people running our country are just plain lazy. Its pretty sad that an excuse can be made such as "i did not read it in its entirety" about a bill which can significantly impact not only Americans today, but years from now as the government falls further into debt. Should a test be given at each piece of legislation, or should we replace our congressmen with people who care enough to read a bill, instead of just putting a stamp of approval after flicking through it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a rather curious proposition that actually might work because it would only make sense that in order to give a valid opinion on a matter, one must first have a general understanding of the issue. The same can be said about the economy and other areas of our nation as having a better educated population will increase the average awarness of national problems. Furthermore, by requiring these polititians to actually "research" what they are voting for, it will insure that these representatives of the people are actually working hard rather then using their office as an attempt to play with the media for future opportunities.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest it rather scares me that the people voting on legislation don't read the piece entirely. It shows me that they are lazy and careless. I like this idea that congress should be more like college. I would feel much better if I knew that a representative in the House and Senate had a complete understanding of a piece of legislation before having to vote on it.
ReplyDelete-Double Dare
I actually like this idea because congress at a whole probably slacks (just as students do) after they know they're seat is safe. When I first looked at this blog, I thought you were going to talk down on students but it is nice to hear we aren't alone. I hope somebody important will look at this idea though. It's ridiculous that in a representative democracy, the people who represent the people are making money for not doing their jobs!
ReplyDeletei bet you are the only one to think about something like this, yet it could actually turn out to be a good plan. Upperclass or not, there should still be checkups and strict guidelines to follow, so that power is not used wrongly
ReplyDeletejoe garza
I have never heard an idea like this and I can't believe noone has thought of this yet. The fact is that our representatives are ridiculously lazy and obviously don't care too much about what goes on in the country. If they don't care enough to read through the document entirely and really think about what they are signing, then they should definitely be replaced by people who do.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard an idea like this and I can't believe noone has thought of this yet. The fact is that our representatives are ridiculously lazy and obviously don't care too much about what goes on in the country. If they don't care enough to read through the document entirely and really think about what they are signing, then they should definitely be replaced by people who do.
ReplyDeleteforgot my name on the first one!
katie chs
This sounds like a great idea. We could also incorporate this into other jobs as well. The most apparent industry which comes to mind right now would be the mortgage industry. If the institutions making the risky mortgages were forced to put a cost analysis together fewer of the bad mortgages would be made.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Tweedy
Taking away the opportunity to vote for legislation or run for another term is the perfect incentive to drive members of the House and Senate to pay closer attention to what they have in front of them. If this wouldn't keep them from entirely reading an important legislation, then I don't know what would. Required exams would bring peace of mind to Americans everywhere. It would help ensure that Congress is fit to create such laws and that America is in good hands.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of taking a test, but at the same time it cannot become all about the test. Some Congress men may put a lot of focus on the test when they could be foucusing more on another topic. Also, people vote to put them into Congress, but the test would pretty much take the place of voting. This is a interesting idea.
ReplyDelete-Cara H.