House GOP directs bills to go online three days before action

Speaker of the House John Boehner took the gavel for the Republican majority, promising greater transparency. Toward that end, the House adopted rules that say a bill should be available online for three days before a vote.

Making sure the public (and members) could read a bill before a vote has long been a goal for open-government advocates. The new rules go a long way toward making that a reality. The rules say that it is a "point of order" that bills must be posted online for three calendar days before they may be acted upon.

Yet it's possible for points of order to be be waived from time to time. The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation examined the new rules and warned that there are several ways House leadership or legislation could act to undermine the requirement to post bills online.

Nevertheless, the new rule means progress. "The spirit of the changes makes us optimistic that all bills will publicly available, online, for at least 72 hours before they are considered. The new majority is off to a good start," said Lisa Rosenberg, writing on Sunlight's blog on Jan. 4, 2011.

We're going to be watching the House Republicans to see if they do indeed post bills online for three days before voting. If they do, we'll rate this Promise Kept. For now, they've adopted a rule in favor of such posting, so we rate the promise In the Works.