Tancredo on the New Immigration Proposal

Tancredo talked on CNN about the new immigration proposal a few days ago:

Comments

[Kay]

I'm with the Congressman! This is amnesty, pure and simple. Why does the media not get that these are lawbreakers before they are "maids and landscapers"? Let's do enforcement first, and not reward criminals! Dry up the jobs and let the illegals "self-deport."
Furthermore, let's strip "anchor babies" of their citizenship, which they obtained under false pretenses. We would, after all, do the same for any naturalized citizen who obtained that citizenship under false pretenses. Then we won't have to hear the bleeding heart nonsense about splitting up families. I am so angry about this bill I can hardly see straight!

[Dact]

What is it with these journalists like Paula Zahn? You could tell by her tone that she just doesn't get it! Common sense has completely vaporized in this country!

[Dact]

A way around this assault on our right to know what is being voted on!

(d) According to Section I of Thomas Jefferson's 1812 Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States (“Jefferson's Manual”), “nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of administration and those who acted with the majority ... than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding [which] operated as a check and control of the actions of the majority [and] a shelter and protection to the minority.”

(e) According to Sections XXII and XL of Jefferson's Manual, it was the rule of the Senate that every bill receive three readings, two full readings by the Clerk of the Senate, and a third reading of the title of the bill only in that “every member of the Senate had a printed copy [of said bill] in his hand.”

(f) According to Sections XXIV, XXV, and XL of Jefferson's Manual, it was the rule of the House of Representatives, following the parliamentary procedure of the English House of Commons, that every bill received two full readings by the Clerk of the House, and a reading of the whole contents of the bill verbatim by the Speaker of the House before the House voted on each bill.

(g) Under current Senate rules, the Senate has departed from its original practice of a full first and second reading of each bill, and of ensuring that each Senator has a printed or other verbatim copy of each bill before passage thereof, having by Rule XIV limited each reading of a bill to the reading of the bill's title only, unless the Senate in any case shall otherwise order.

(h) Under current House rules, the House of Representatives has by Rule XVI (8) and Rule XVIII (5) embraced its original practice of full first and second readings of each bill, but has regularly departed from this practice by unanimous consent of the House, and has dispensed altogether its original practice of a verbatim third reading of each bill before passage, limiting such third reading to the reading of the title only, including the reading of the title only even when members of the House have no printed or other verbatim copy of a bill before passage.

(i) Although Section 106, Title 1, United States Code, requires a bill to be made available in written form to each member of Congress before final passage Congress has by statute conferred upon itself the power, during the last six days of a session of Congress, by concurrent resolution, to vote for passage of a bill that is not in form at the time of final passage.

(j) As a direct consequence of the Senate and the House of Representatives departure from the salutary practice of full, verbatim readings of each bill before final passage, and further, as a direct consequence of Congress, by concurrent resolution, having permitted certain appropriation and budget bills to be enacted into law without such bills being printed and presented to Congress in written form prior to final passage, Congress has: (a) imposed upon the American people excessively long bills, largely written by an unelected bureaucracy, resulting in generally incomprehensible, cumbersome, oppressive and burdensome laws, containing hidden provisions for special interests; (b) deprived the American people and their elected Senators and Representatives of a full and fair opportunity to examine the text of said bills, and all amendments thereto, prior to passage; (c) undermined the confidence of the American people by its failure to give adequate notice to the people before a vote is taken on said bills and their amendments in the bills; and (d) has called into question the integrity and reliability of the legislative processes in both houses of Congress by its failure to ensure that each member of the Senate and each member of the House has, prior to passage, either listened attentively to the reading of the full text of each bill, and its amendments, or has personally read the text thereof.

[Glory]

Why does the government continually reward poor behavior?

Does the lady interviewing Congressman Tancredo know anything about the actual bill, or just the talking points for it? That interview sounded like the later. Way to go, Congressman Tancredo, you made her look uninformed.