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Legislation key to US President Barack Obama's trade agenda has passed a key hurdle in the Senate, just two weeks after it appeared to have failed.
The bill known as the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or, more commonly, Fast Track, makes it easier for presidents to negotiate trade deals.
Supporters see it as critical to the success of a 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The bill is expected to pass a final vote in the Senate on Wednesday.
Tuesday's 60-37 vote - just barely meeting the required 60 vote threshold - is the result of the combined efforts of the White House and many congressional Republicans to push the bill through Congress, despite the opposition of many Democrats.
This is primarily a tech news site, and it's generally good to avoid political news, but the TPP is a huge trade deal, negotiated in secret, that will have large ramifications for the world economy that affects us all, and that also has large implications for the accountability of major world governments to their citizens.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Interesting) by enigma32 on Wednesday June 24 2015, @05:50PM
I've often fantasized that "law" could be written as commits, stuffed into pull requests, and then merged into the master branch of what "the law" currently is. Transparency and simplicity all around.
You know, rather than secret documents, potentially thousands of pages long, that amend other documents so that you'd have to look up the entire chain to figure out what "the law" is.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by WillAdams on Wednesday June 24 2015, @05:56PM
Hell, I'd be happy if we just required that bills be read in their entirety, on the floor, in the presence of everyone voting on it before being passed.
Similarly, the President should be required to read the entire bill and initial each page in advance of the signing ceremony.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday June 24 2015, @06:15PM
Courtesy of polarization and filibustering, many US bills are actually passed with the chambers almost full.
I've seen many pictures of major laws passed in other countries with barely 10% of the elected people voting (and a few fun moments when minority parties flooded an otherwise empty chamber to get majority bills rejected).
The threshold for a bill to pass should always be based on the eligible voters, and missing lawmakers should be fined a percentage of their income (including campaign funds) if they exceed n sick days.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:41AM
It's typical for a body that takes votes to have a requirement for a quorum. [google.com]
What you claim does sound extremely undemocratic.
I wonder if the photos you referenced aren't taken during *debate* or some such.
I know that some USA congresscritters take to the floor of a nearly-empty chamber during evening hours in order to read things into the record.
.
Though I seem to be picking on you repeatedly today, you shouldn't take it personally.
It'll be somebody else's turn tomorrow. 8-)
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 25 2015, @05:53AM
Nope, some assemblies indeed have no quorum, or have rules allowing one guy to vote for half his party-mates.
I am saddened by the fact that I grew up in a place which allows politicians to be paid while not actually bothering to sit in session.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday June 24 2015, @06:44PM
That makes it harder to replace pages afterwards.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Wednesday June 24 2015, @07:20PM
You can't force lawmakers to actually do their job in any way other than voting them out when they don't. For instance, you want a requirement that bills are be read on the floor in their entirety? They'll get around that with little effort procedurally. They'll write laws that essentially say: "The regulations in the 2,954 page long document XYZ are hereby incorporated by reference into this Act."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khedoros on Wednesday June 24 2015, @08:01PM
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday June 24 2015, @10:05PM
They'll just get around that by passing a bill saying "No text or other 'blah blah blah' on the bill."
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:15AM
That's why there needs to be a constitutional amendment. Mere bills can't override the highest law of the land.
(Score: 1) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Wednesday June 24 2015, @06:53PM
s/law/legislation/g
Law is not what's in the law books. Law is decided by courts and derives from the interpretation of legislation by various judges over time. This means that in addition to legislation, you also need to study case law for whatever precendents may apply. Which is impossible even at superhuman reading speed--but ignorance of the law is no excuse. And you'd have to figure out for yourself whether each one can or can't be applied to your case. The English Common Law system gets dressed up to seem necessary for fairness but IMO it's oppressive and exists only to enrich lawyers and oppress the poor (who can't afford to let someone else figure out in advance what is or isn't likely to be safe).
In parting I quotes Tacitus at you:
"Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws."
"The more corrupt the republic, the more the laws."
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday June 24 2015, @10:25PM
Need to let IBM's Watson parse it.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek