Sponsors
The bill increases transparency, accountability, and judicial enforceability of congressional procedure—giving the public stronger oversight and remedies—at the cost of more litigation, greater administrative burden, slower lawmaking (including in emergencies), and heightened separation-of-powers tensions.
Taxpayers and the public gain substantially greater transparency and voting accountability because bills must publish full text in machine-readable form before final passage, members must record review/affidavits, and votes must be tied to explicit procedural records.
Individuals, states, and other private parties can seek judicial review to block enforcement of laws enacted without required procedures, creating an external enforcement mechanism beyond internal congressional remedies.
Members of Congress (and those who watch them) will face clearer expectations to identify constitutional authority and to review and vote on complete bill text, which should improve legislative clarity about the bases for federal action.
Taxpayers and the federal courts are likely to face a marked increase in litigation because private parties gain new grounds to sue over procedural noncompliance, creating workload and cost pressures on the judiciary.
Businesses, states, and ordinary people could face legal uncertainty if acts are declared void for procedural lapses, undermining reliance on statutes and disrupting government programs and private planning.
Requiring readings, a minimum publication period, and other procedural steps will slow the legislative process and could hinder rapid responses to emergencies or time-sensitive national-security and budget matters.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by Rand Paul · Last progress January 9, 2025
Requires Congress to follow strict reading, publication, and drafting rules before passing most bills: sponsors must cite the constitutional powers relied on, bills that change existing law must show the full current text plus proposed changes and the resulting revised text, the full text must be published 7 days before a final vote in machine-readable form, and the assembled chamber must have the Clerk/Secretary read the full text aloud with a quorum present (subject to narrow reenrollment exceptions). Members who vote for a measure must sign under penalty of perjury that they read or heard the full text before voting; clerks must refuse to accept measures that do not meet these requirements. Creates strong enforcement: any statute enacted in violation of these rules is declared void and unenforceable, and it creates a federal cause of action allowing affected persons and Members to seek declaratory and injunctive relief. Also includes a severability clause and a technical update to the U.S. Code table of sections.