President Obama continues breaking this important promise:
"Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." — Plan to Change Washington
White House Five Day Reviews - Check prior to all presidential signings
Source: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/
Other promises regarding ethics.
UPDATES:
Updated: February 7, 2009
For a short while the White House website had a page for 5 day reviews and comments located at http://www.whitehouse.gov/five_day_review/
That page now seems to have been removed and a thorough search doesn't show a replacement page. We then decided to contact the White House staff and suggest that they ADD A MENU ITEM for "Five Day Reviews" to their "Briefing Room" Menu. There is a perfect place to put it following the "Nominations & Appointments" link.
Putting a easy to find link to these Comments and Reviews in the websites's Briefing Room would show visitors that the President takes his promise seriously and will in future provide the five days for reviews and comments that he promised.
Updated: February 4, 2009
Obama's continues to break "Sunlight before Signing" promise
When President Obama signed his first bill without posting it to the Web for five days of public comment, we counted this as his second broken promise.
For his second bill, Obama signed an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health coverage for low-income children. He signed it on Feb. 4, 2009, just hours after it was finalized in Congress.
This time, though, the White House had posted the text of the working bill to its Web site on Feb. 1, 2009, with the following note : "Since this version of the bill is expected to pass the House of Representatives in the coming week, we are making the legislation available for public comment now."
That doesn't quite cut it for his promise, though. The legislation was still in process in Congress, and even if no substantial changes were made, the possibility was still there. It's not the five-day waiting period he had promised.
It's also not emergency legislation. The bill's provisions don't kick in until April 1, 2009, almost three months from signing.
The White House was asked about this matter on Jan. 29, when Obama signed his first bill. Five days later, on the day of the SCHIP signing, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor made the following comment:
"During the campaign, the president committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting nonemergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The president remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the president's desk online for comment. We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our Web site for comment as it moves through congress over the next few weeks."
In deciding on our ratings, we like to be reasonable about promises that take time to implement. But the White House has demonstrated it has the technical ability to post information to their site and allow comments. They're just not waiting the promised interval. So we are still counting this as a broken promise.
Sources:
White House Web site, CHIP , accessed Feb. 4, 2009
Thomas, SCHIP legislation , accessed Feb. 4, 2009
White House Web site, "Latest version of SCHIP posted for comment ," Feb. 1, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, January 30, 2009
Obama signs first law without five days of Web comment
One of President Obama's major campaign planks was making government more open and accountable. It's a reaction to a habit in Congress of rushing bills through the House and Senate without giving people much opportunity to know what the bills would do. Indeed, sometimes members of Congress don't even know what's in the bills.
So Obama pledged during the campaign to institute "sunlight before signing" to reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review and comment of them. Unbelievably, Obama broke this promise on the very first bill he signed into law as president — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — which received no such vetting.
The legislation was not posted to the White House Web site for comment in any way that we could find. In fact, the Congressional Record shows that the law was passed in the Senate on Jan. 22, 2009, passed in the House on Jan. 27, and signed by the president on Jan. 29. So only two days passed between the bill's final passage and the signing.
We see no way the bill could be deemed emergency legislation, even taking the broadest view. The bill overturns the effects of a Supreme Court decision that limited when workers could sue for pay discrimination. Most pertinently, the bill is retroactive to the time of the court decision — May 28, 2007. Obama earned a Promise Kept from us for signing the law. But it would have the same effect if had been signed a few days later, so it's clearly not an emergency.
Obama signed the measure at 10:20 a.m. About two hours later, the White House posted the bill on its Web site with a link that asks people to submit comments. But the bill was already signed at that point.
We recognize that Obama has been in office just a week, but he was very clear about his plan for a five-day comment period, and we can't see why this one needed to be rushed. It's rather ironic that Obama both keeps and breaks a campaign promise at the same time.
See also: Work to Overturn Supreme Court's Ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear
Sources:
White House Web site, post on the Lilly Ledbetter Act, accessed Jan. 30, 2009
Library of Congress THOMAS, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, accessed Jan. 29, 2009
Rate this promise + or - whether you believe it is good or bad for the nation.
Click here to read other promises made regarding ethics.
Please let us know what you think:
I voted for Obama because he seemed to really be serious about making government more responsive to the people. His use of the internet also impressed me and it made sense that he would continue doing so in the future.
I just can't understand why he didn't keep this simple promise.
He should have someone on his staff keeping track.
gressional Record shows that the law was passed in the Senate on Jan. 22, 2009, passed in the House on Jan. 27, and signed by the president on Jan. 29. So only two days passed between the bill's final passage and the signing.
We see no way the bill could be deemed emergency legislation, even taking the broadest view. The bill overturns the effects of a Supreme Court decision that limited when workers could sue for pay discrimination. Most pertinently, the bill is retroactive to the time of the court decision — May 28, 2007. Obama earned a Promise Kept from us for signing the law. But it would have the same effect if had been signed a few days later, so it's clearly not an emergency.
Obama signed the measure at 10:20 a.
d.
It's also not emergency legislation. The bill's provisions don't kick in until April 1, 2009, almost three months from signing.
The White House was asked about this matter on Jan. 29, when Obama signed his first bill. Five days later, on the day of the SCHIP signing, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor made the following comment:
"During the campaign, the president committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting nonemergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The president remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the president's desk online for comment. We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calend
At least he is getting stuff done. I do not see the big deal. He isn't hiding anything just making progress.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT A BIG DEAL?
Are you brain dead or didn't you understand what Obama promised?
Over and over again he firmly stated that he would wait 5 days for the
American people to review and comment on any bill before he would sign
it into law. It was a VERY BIG DEAL to me and many others.
This is an outright betrayal of all those who took him at his word. I for
one am disgusted at being lied to when it would have been so easy
for him to wait five days before signing this bill into law.
This was no emergency and no need to rush into signing it!
I only pray that it isn't a sign of things to come.
Dear Janet: I believe it's unfair to accuse the President of lying in this particular case. Yes, it's true he did promise to allow five days of public review and comment before signing "any non-emergency bill" into law, but the Lilly Ledbetter bill had been around for several years and many people commented on it on the old Obama website, It was also widely discussed in the media and on dozens of websites. I think that saying that there wasn't time for debate and comments in this particular instance is unjustified.
I'll admit that by the strictest interpretation of his campaign promise, Obama may have failed to live up to his words, but it's not like this was a new bill. Also please consider that the purpose of this bill was to reverse a judgment, not make a new law.
Let's give the President a chance and see if he follows through with a five-day waiting period before signing the next bill. I, for one, will be keeping and eye on the White House Website to see if he does.
pretty sure Rick is right. I don't believe this is an example of breaking a promise. If he finds he was wrong in another area, another idea, would we want him to keep a promise that would harm our success whether in economics, or social issues, or foreign policy? Do we want him to be bipartisan no matter what? love the site, wish I typed better.
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That doesn't quite cut it for his promise, though. The legislation was still in process in Congress, and even if no substantial changes were made, the possibility was still there. It's not the five-day waiting period he had promised.
It's also not emergency legislation. The bill's provisions don't kick in until April 1, 2009, almost three months from signing.
The White House was asked about this m
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the president committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting nonemergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The president remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the president's desk online for comment. We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our Web site for comment as it moves through congr
the president committed to introducing more sunlight into the lawmaking process by posting nonemergency legislation online for five days before signing it. The president remains committed to bringing more transparency to government, and in this spirit the White House has posted legislation expected to come to the president's desk online for comment. We will be implementing this policy in full soon; currently we are working through implementation procedures and some initial issues with the congressional calendar. In the meantime, we will continue to post legislation on our Web site for comment as it moves through congres
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