Examples of Rules a Committee "Might" Create
- Require Congress to have a joint session once a week and invite the President to it to answer questions
- Require a log of visitors to members of Congress and their Staff to be
posted on the Internet the day after the visit - on the Committee's
website.
- Require a verbatim transcript of any meeting, telephone call, email, communication, or any other communication between a member of Congress or their Staff and anyone not a government employee to be posted the day after the communication - on the Committee's website.
- Citizen Committees would not be able to remove a member of Congress,
or a specific Staff member, but they would be able to set or reduce the budget
for a member of Congress, or reduce the numer of staff for a specific member, because of specific failings as determined by
a Citizen Committee.
- Committees would NOT be able to set rules for the conduct of political
campaigns. But they would be able to review the conduct of political
activities of members of Congress and their Staff.
- A bill is passed by a simply majority. But Committees might require 10% of the votes (10 in the Senate, 44 in the House) passing any bill to not be from the majority Party/Caucus. If the House or Senate could not accomplish this, then a Citizen Committee could, if they felt the facts warranted it, reduce travel, budget, or staff of ALL members of the House or Senate, as the case may be.
- On the other hand, the Committee could prohibit the House or Senate being organized on the basis of political parties.
- Require members of the House and Senate to keep to a work schedule like many citizens have to, 8a to 5p with one hour for lunch five days a week and three weeks vacation per year.
- Require the entire Senate to convene for lunch one day each week, and 100 members of the House to convene for lunch another day each week. Require two speakers at each luncheon and question and answer session afterword (inspired by NYT's David Brook's comment on PBS Newshour 02/19/10)
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