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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday April 14 2019, @09:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-is-my-shocked-face dept.

An investigation into nearly 1 million bills across all 50 US states showed a high proportion of proposed US laws being written by lobbyists. The investigation was based on computer analysis of the similarities in language used in the bills. Additionally, copycat legislation is a problem. That is where states copy-paste key parts of proposed legislation from each other, and often the original is can be traced back to lobbyists. Many tricks are used to increase acceptance of these bills such as use of deceptive titles, misleading endorsements, copied bills to override locally sourced bills, and more. The article includes several graphics showing the distribution of bad practices across the states.

A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation.

USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @11:20PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @11:20PM (#829525)

    This outsourcing doesn't really bother me, as technically I could write the laws too and the legislature can't be experts on everything. However, I also am a firm believer in government transparency, which means that in the bill information, there needs to be disclosure as to the source of the text. Of course, unless all legislatures do the same, they will just get around that by passing it in one state and then having the disclosure in the other states read "based on the $such_and_such_law of $other_state."

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 15 2019, @01:35AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday April 15 2019, @01:35AM (#829579)

    In the end, it doesn't really matter who wrote it. What matters is: what it says, how much money flows from where to where as a result, and who voted for it.

    Put together the money flows and the votes and a clear pattern should emerge of representatives acting to benefit their constituents. What we really need for transparency are red flags that go up when representatives do things that hurt their constituents.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday April 15 2019, @04:41AM (1 child)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Monday April 15 2019, @04:41AM (#829650)

    Washington D.C. [arstechnica.com] and Germany [wired.com] make their laws available under publicly accessible revision control, maybe more U.S. states could start doing this too.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Monday April 15 2019, @07:11AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday April 15 2019, @07:11AM (#829713) Journal

      The German one is not an official government site, but the work of a single activist (and has had no updates since many years).

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @05:20AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @05:20AM (#829665)

    So let's see you write a law. First publish the text and then tell us who adopted it.... I won't be holding my breath btw.

    “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” ― Anatole France

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @07:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @07:40PM (#829989)

      Funny thing is, you are probably talking to one of the handful of people in my state who has done so. The State of Iowa uses the language I sent to my state senator and representative after the Equifax breach that makes credit freezes free for everyone. I also had a hand at writing legislation and administrative rules while working at the state affiliate of the ACLU.