>>Newsletter and petition form Citizens Against Government Waste. Action Alert.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste – Action Alert

Dear BRENDA,

I urge you to join CCAGW and 182 members of
Congress in defying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by demanding
that all Americans have at least 72 hours to review on the Internet
every bill before it comes up for a final vote.

If you want to stop Speaker Pelosi from
“railroading” Congress into passing, without public
debate, some of the most sweeping legislation in the history of this
nation, I urge you to sign on to the Congressional Discharge Petition
for H. Res. 554

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=WKIiOIi5VLhICHGGM1YX3A..

.

Let me explain.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic
congressional leadership have engaged in an all-out strategy to ram
through Congress legislation designed to remake America without time
for public debate or even for members of Congress to read the
legislation they are voting on.

From the failed “economic
stimulus” bill to the cap-and-trade energy tax to bailouts of
the auto and financial industries to government-run healthcare
legislation, Speaker Pelosi is refusing to give members of Congress
and the public time to read the final versions of legislation –
let alone debate it.

This “trust me, vote now and read it
later” approach effectively turns Congress into a rubber stamp
for President Obama’s policies and gives Speaker Pelosi and her
fellow liberal lawmakers almost unlimited power.

That is why CCAGW has joined 182 members of
Congress in fighting for H. Res. 554, which would change the Rules of
the U.S. House of Representatives to require Speaker Pelosi to post,
without exception, all final versions of legislation on the Internet
at least 72 hours before holding a vote.

Here is just one example of why this 72-hour
review period is so important.

At approximately 2:45 a.m. on the day the
House passed the wildly expensive cap-and-trade energy tax, the
liberal leadership of the House mysteriously added a whopping 300-page
amendment to the legislation.  Congress had spent weeks crafting
the bill, and this massive amendment contained new and radical
provisions.

One of the worst of the
wee-hours-of-the-morning provisions requires you to receive permission
from the Environmental Protection Agency in order to sell your
home.

Unbelievable, but true!  The EPA will
review the energy efficiency of your appliances, windows, roof,
furnace, air conditioning, and walls to determine if you meet their
standards for private homes.  If they do not approve of your
home, you will be required to make changes, regardless of the cost,
before you can sell.

CCAGW is fighting tooth-and-nail to keep this
outrageous, authoritarian provision out of the Senate version of
cap-and-trade legislation, which is not expected to come up for a vote
until next year.

However, we can prevent more radical policies
like this EPA home-sale approval requirement RIGHT NOW by stopping
Speaker Pelosi and her left-wing minions from being able to call for
votes on legislation without time for members of Congress, the public,
and policy experts like CCAGW to review the details of a bill.

Not surprisingly, Speaker Pelosi and the
ultra-liberal House leadership are blocking H. Res. 554 by bottling it
up in the Rules Committee and refusing to let it come to the House
floor.

The only way to force a vote on H. Res. 554
is for 218 members of Congress to sign what is known as a Discharge
Petition requiring that the 72-hour rule change come to the House
floor.

BRENDA, as someone who has counted votes in Washington for
decades, I can tell you that if this rule change is put to a vote on
the House floor an overwhelming number of members of Congress will
vote for it – because more than 80 percent of the American
people support having all legislation posted on the Internet for 72
hours before a final vote.

Speaker Pelosi’s only chance to block
the public and members of Congress from reading and discussing
legislation before it becomes law is if she can stop the Discharge
Petition from gaining 218 signatures.

As I send you this e-mail, 182 members of
Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have stepped forward to sign
the Discharge Petition.

We need just 36 more.

And we have more than enough top targets whom
we are heavily lobbying.  For example, 24 Representatives
co-sponsored H. Res. 554 but have yet to sign the Discharge Petition
due to pressure from Speaker Pelosi.

BRENDA, we can win these 24 signatures and reach the 218
required, but we urgently need your help.

We must demonstrate in the most concrete
manner possible that not only are Americans solidly behind the posting
of all legislation on the Internet for at least 72 hours, but that
taxpayers are willing to fight for this new rule.

That is why I need you to sign on to the very
same Discharge Petition that we are urging members of Congress to
sign.  We will tabulate your signature, along with the tens of
thousands of others, and publicize the results to the members of
Congress whose support we are lobbying to secure.

Please, before you do anything else today,
take a moment to sign on to the Discharge Petition for H. Res. 554.

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=6nMEmjillovxbBApgUInuA..

And when you do, I want to urge you in the
strongest terms possible to make a contribution to CCAGW to enable us
to wage this all-out lobbying campaign for the 72-hour rule.

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=maCGHmd6J2rldiRnkagudw..

Your contribution will enable us not only to
lobby our congressional targets on Capitol Hill, but also to publicize
the need for them to sign the Discharge Petition back in their home
districts.

If we can not only show rapidly growing
national support for the 72-hour rule, but also generate a tidal wave
of letters, e-mails and news articles from our congressional
targets’ home districts, we will win!

However, undertaking such a comprehensive
campaign in as many as 36 congressional districts around the country
is expensive, and we cannot wage this battle without your support,
BRENDA.

Please, before you do anything else today,
make your most generous contribution

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=-5ZiSE1I_mhVmKzpvnsl7A..

of $25

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=s8riSMP1msQ57itN2jsS3g..

, $35

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=2Krjp9OfiXa8M9Ecu6tV3w..

, $50

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=sa2uelIshWW-XwVjatuB8A..

, or even $100

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=o9ZipLbRyRPOHIjHnVJY_g..

to help CCAGW wage this campaign to enact the 72-hour rule and stop
Speaker Pelosi from ramming her and President Obama’s
ultra-liberal, big-government agenda through Congress without time for
public debate, or even for lawmakers to read the bills.

Whether it is fighting earmarks in the
“economic stimulus” bill, exposing last-minute gimmicks
that Congress will likely add to healthcare reform legislation, or
battling wee-hours-of-the-morning provisions – like the EPA
home-sale approval requirement in the House cap-and-trade energy bill
– CCAGW and all taxpaying Americans desperately need to win
passage of this 72-hour rule.  Please sign on to the Discharge
Petition for H. Res. 554

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=vWZYIjZ-pO2l6ykEpquLug..

and make your largest possible contribution to CCAGW today

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=SvS4yLEhWMSVahZG71CNqg..

.

Sincerely,

schatz_signature_gif

Thomas A. Schatz
President

P.S.  BRENDA, over the summer when Americans had time to read H.R.
3200, the House healthcare “reform” bill, they discovered
dozens of troublesome and expensive provisions.  Taxpayers
responded by overwhelming town hall meetings being held by members of
Congress.  This is the way the democratic process is supposed to
work.  Winning passage of the 72-hour rule will give us a
powerful new weapon to stop this Congress and Administration from
continuing to drain our wallets and erode our freedoms.  Please
sign on to the Discharge Petition for H. Res. 554

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=dXHeiPDEv8QCS5RZm8WiDg..

and make your largest possible contribution

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=G5etonXrBA5t1BmkWAJmfw..

of $25

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=jIZLN-iJfmVUYULrmK8tOQ..

, $35

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=RmC-qPKPf-HGrCEEcoPhLw..

, $50

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=S3kLefvlu7id97XfH7heig..

, or even $100

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=cyylqmVLpLpwYb2nmkEGzQ..

to help us wage and win this campaign today.

****

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the
lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s
largest taxpayer watchdog organization with more than one million
members and supporters nationwide.  CCAGW is a 501(c)(4)
nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that lobbies for legislation to
eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.
Contributions to CCAGW are not tax-deductible for federal income tax
purposes.  For more information about CCAGW, visit
www.ccagw.org.  Make a contribution to help us stop Speaker
Pelosi from ramming her and President Obama’s ultra-liberal,
big-government agenda through Congress without time for public debate!
http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=f5h-G7hXDKLyWbyl1Lyk8w..

http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=vLfy1kRCT3yAcO644mPMDg..

Please help us get as many Americans as possible to sign on to the
Discharge Petition for H. Res. 554.  Forward this message to a
friend.
http://www.cagw.org/site/R?i=LC2hkxmNFSJujfWzMidCYg..