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110TH CONGRESS
2ND SESSION
H.R. ________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr./Mrs. __________ introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Rules
A BILL
To prohibit the abuse of legislative power: by requiring that each bill or amendment hereinafter introduced (other than concurrent resolutions or appropriations bills within the jurisdictional authority of each subcommittee of each Appropriations Committee) be limited to only one subject, so as to end the practice of addressing more than one subject in a single bill; by requiring that each bill's single subject be descriptively expressed in the title thereto; by requiring each appropriation bill, including any supplemental appropriation bill, by amendment or otherwise, not to contain any general legislation or change of existing law not germane to the subject matter of said bill; by requiring each bill amending an existing statutory provision to set forth in full in the amendatory bill the section as it would read if the proposed amendment were adopted; by declaring that all bills enacted in violation of this Act shall be void, having no legal effect whatsoever, which should be treated as nullities by the American people, this Act being mandatory in purpose, not directory only.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This Act may be cited as the One Subject at a Time Act of 2007.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
(a) Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution provides that [e]very Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes Law, be presented to the President of the United States for the Presidents approval or veto.
(b) At the time of the introduction of a Bill in Congress, it has become the common practice of the sponsors) of a Bill to attach at the beginning section of such Bill a Title to serve (i) as a ready reference to such Bill and (ii) as a means of marshaling support for such Bill both among his Senate and House colleagues and in the general public.
(c) It has also become commonplace in Congress, notwithstanding the internal rules of the Senate and the House, for a Bill to address more than one unrelated Subject and addressing Subjects not reflected in the Title of the Bill, including, but not limited to, general legislation or a change of existing law not germane to the subject matter of an appropriations bill such as the Lautenberg Amendment to federal firearms law inserted as an amendment to the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 or to the subject matter of a supplemental appropriations such as the REAL I.D. Act attached as a rider to the Emergency, Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief (May, 2005) or the provision increasing the minimum wage inserted as an amendment to the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations bill of 2007 thereby confusing and obfuscating the democratic representative principle requiring a majority vote in both houses of Congress for a bill to become law. (However, since the totality of matters addressed in Concurrent Resolutions such as those introduced in compliance with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 are not presented to the President for signature, and do not have the force of law, and as such those resolutions are not problematic. Also, since appropriations bills confined to appropriations within the authority of each subcommittee of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are on the same subject, they are not problematic.)
(d) It has further become increasingly commonplace for a Bill to bear a Title designed to propagandize the people and intimidate members of Congress, rather than to describe the Bill's subject matter content, including but not limited to such Titles as No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, popularly known as the USA PATRIOT Act, or more simply the PATRIOT Act.
(e) It has further become commonplace for a Bill containing amendments to previously enacted laws to designate the sections of the Title or Number of the Public Law or the Chapter of the United States Code to be amended, omitting completely from the amendatory Bill the full text of the existing sections as they would be modified if the Bill were enacted into Law.
(f) The practice of combining into one Bill Subjects diverse in their nature and having no necessary connection, thereby to secure the passage of several measures, no one of which could succeed on its own merits, both corrupts Congress and endangers the American constitutional republic. See Thomas Cooley, a Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the United States of the American Union, Chapter VI, p. 143 (Little, Brown: 5th ed. 1883).
(g) The practice of crafting a Title to a Bill that provides little or no intimation of the subject matter content of the Bill catches members of Congress unawares and misleads the American people.
(h) The practice of making brief and uninformative references in a Bill designed to amend a provision of existing law, without providing in the Bill the text of the law as it would appear if the Bill is enacted, unnecessarily deprives members of Congress and members of the public of a fair and complete opportunity to assess the impact of the proposed amendments on current law.
(i) To prevent log-rolling of legislation, where Members of Congress are enticed to vote to support provisions of laws they oppose in order to enact other provisions of laws they support, it is necessary for each Bill, including an operating budget Bill, omnibus appropriations Bill or supplemental appropriations Bill, to be limited to one subject, to the ends that (i) legislative trading by proponents of measures containing different subjects may not combine those measures in one Bill and (b) the President is afforded a reasonable opportunity to exercise his constitutionally-conferred veto power against the enactment of rash, immature and improper laws.
(j) To prevent surprise or fraud upon the legislature and the American people, it is necessary that (i) the subject of each Bill be specified in the Title to such Bill, and (ii) the effect of an amendment to existing law, if any, be set forth in full in such Bill, to the end that the subject matter of the bill be adequately revealed and defined so as to (iii) prevent surprise or fraud upon Congress and (iv) fairly apprise the people in such a way as to afford them an opportunity to be heard by petition or otherwise.
(k) To make effective the rules set forth herein, it is necessary that they be mandatory and prohibitory, not directory only, subject to judicial review for legislative compliance herewith.
SECTION 3. ONE SUBJECT AT A TIME
(a) No Bill or Joint Resolution shall embrace more than one subject at a time, and that shall be clearly and descriptively expressed in the Title.
(b) An Appropriations Bill shall not contain any general legislation or change of existing law provision, the subject of which is not germane to the subject matter of each such Appropriations Bill, provided however, that this section shall not be construed to prohibit any provision imposing limitations upon the expenditure of funds so appropriated.
(c) Concurrent Resolutions including those under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 which are not presented to the President for signature and which do not have the force of law are exempt from this provision.
SECTION 4. AMENDATORY BILLS
(a) No statute may be amended or revised solely by reference to the insertions or deletions to be made to the text of the sections or subsections of an existing law as identified by its Title or Number of the Public Law, or the Chapter or Section of the United States Code.
(b) A Bill amending or revising a statute shall identify the statute to be amended by its Title or Number of Public Law, or Chapter or Section of the United States Code, and shall set forth completely each section or subsection as it would read if the amendment or revision to that section or subsection were adopted, noting clearly the proposed insertions or deletions to the existing statutory text.
SECTION 5. ENFORCEMENT
(a) If the Title of an Act or Joint Resolution addresses two or more unrelated subjects, then the entire Act or Joint Resolution is void.
(b) If the Title of an Act or Joint Resolution addresses a single subject, but the Act contains one or more provisions concerning a subject that is not clearly and descriptively expressed in its Title, then only such provision or provisions concerning the subject not clearly and descriptively expressed in the Title shall be void.
(c) If an Act appropriating funds contains a provision outside of the jurisdiction of the relevant subcommittee of the House and Senate Appropriations committee, and therefore outside the subject of the bill, then such provision shall be void.
(d) If an Act appropriating funds contains general legislation or change of existing law provision not germane to the subject matter of such bill, then each and every such provision shall be void.
(e) If an Act amending or revising one or more provisions of a statute refers only to such provision or provisions of such statute, without compliance with Section 4.b. of this Act, then each amendment or revision of such provision or provisions contained in the Act shall be void.
(f) If an Act amending or revising a statute sets forth completely one or more of each provision or provisions of such statute as the statute would read if so amended or revised, but fails to set forth completely any other provision or provisions of such statute amended or revised by said Act, as required by Section 4.b. of this Act, then each and every amendment or revision of all provisions of such statute contained in the Act shall be void.
(g) Any person aggrieved by the enforcement of, or attempt or threat of enforcement of, an Act passed without having complied with Sections 3 and 4 of this Act, or any member of Congress aggrieved by the failure of the house of which he is a member to comply with the requirements of said Sections, shall, regardless of the amount in controversy, have a cause of action under Sections 2201 and 2202, Title 28, United States Code and Rules 57 and 65, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the United States to seek appropriate relief, including an injunction against the enforcement of any law, the passage of which did not conform to Sections 3 and 4 of this Act.
(h) In any judicial action brought pursuant to Section 5(g) of this Act, the standard of review shall be de novo.