Grothman: Committee Hearings on Major Legislation are the Latest Victim of the Cancel Culture
Today, Congressman Glenn Grothman (WI-06) released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives again did not adhere to regular order and did not hold a single committee hearing before holding a vote on and passing sweeping, partisan legislation.
“So far in the 117th Congress, committee hearings on major legislation are the latest victim of the cancel culture,” said Grothman. “Under normal circumstances, House committees hold hearings to examine legislation and markups to amend it, so members of the committee are familiar with the full impact of the legislation before it is brought to the House floor for a vote. That isn’t happening.
“This session, under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we are not required to have committee hearings on bills being voted on before April 1. This includes the so-called For the People Act, the so-called Equality Act, the PRO Act, two anti-Second Amendment bills, and the amnesty bill that passed this week. All these high-profile bills were brought to the floor without having the committee spend time analyzing them.
“While this is not a particularly hot topic, this is not the way a well-run legislature should act. Every one of these major bills should have had a hearing in which we can listen to experts in favor of the bill and opposed to the bill and a hearing in which dozens of amendments could be offered.
“I think one of the reasons why so many inflammatory bills are being voted on prior to April 1 is that Members of Congress have not had a chance to really analyze what they were voting on.
“I believe that if committee hearings were held, some amendments would have passed and these bills could have been improved.
“I realize this is not normally the type of issue that causes politicians to win or lose elections, but I send out this message as a way of explaining why so many outlandish bills have passed in the first three weeks.”
Background
Regular order happens when a bill is introduced to the House and referred to the committee(s) of jurisdiction, where members of that committee find ways to improve the bill and many times include bipartisan initiatives. This is done by holding hearings on key provisions of the bill to find out how they will affect Americans and holding markups to amend the bill.
To this point, 16 of the 19 rule bills that the House has passed have not gone through regular order. That means these bills have been introduced by Democratic House leadership and put on the House calendar for a vote before consulting with Republican members of Congress, which is nearly half of House Members
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
please, let’s ditch the term ‘cancel culture’. it is really about republicans whining when they don’t get their own way, it is about individuals taking the consequences for stupid racist statements. it is really about being civil and appropriate when the other side, who can they be, is being hateful and unreasonable. we do not need a misleading easy to say phrase. we need to be grown ups and say all the words.
Well put tornado.
What happened to Colin Kaepernick wasn’t “cancel culture?”
What happened to the Dixie Chicks wasn’t cancel culture?
The McCarthy era was one big cancel culture festival and if given the chance, the right-wing would bring it back and have proven very capable by cavalierly throwing around the “communist” label.
The right0-wing are masters of bumper-sticker phrases, but not so much at getting things done.
” so many outlandish bills”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.