From the Center for Fiscal Accountability’s blog:
Byron York provides an interesting perspective on President Obama’s election promise to provide "sunlight before signing" legislation in today’s DC Examiner.
During the campaign, Obama promised:
“No more secrecy. … when there’s a bill that ends up on my desk as president, yo, the American voter, will have five days to look online and find out what it is before I sign it, so that you know what your government’s doing.”
That commitment has since been massaged into applying only to non-emergency legislation. However, the president hasn’t even kept that commitment, signing both the "Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act" and the "S-CHIP reauthorization/expansion bill (which by the way broke another one of his campaign promises – the promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000) shortly after they reached his desk, without allowing for public scrutiny.
The Administration stressed during the "stimulus" negotiations that this package would certainly meet the "emergency legislation" exemption, and proceeded to push for rapid passage of the package, only to then let it sit for a few days (although not the full five days) before signing it today.
From the Examiner:
He signs nonemergency legislation in the blink of an eye. And he lets emergency legislation sit for days before lifting his pen.
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to read the full post.