Constituents lose trust in legislators who add unrelated riders to bills

The purity of a bill under legislation is sometimes compromised by one or more riders.

A rider can be an abuse of legislation if it concerns an issue not concordant with its underlying  bill.  It happens when a rider is easier to pass if added to urgent legislation-- a bill that is expected to be voted on.

This legislative abuse lessens peoples' trust with their elected officials.  Why hold hostage bills
that must get passed with unrelated riders?  Constituents are victimized by this abusive legislation.

Giving money to a bill's legislators is wrong

An established method of gaining influence in legislation is to give money to its legislators.

If there is a bill being debated on, even early in the process, special interests affected by it donate money to campaign coffers in favor of a particular outcome.

This is a blatant form of corruption that has no place in the working of the legislative process.  The peoples' representatives should deny access or influence in the form of money, as the money is of no benefit to the deliberation of the legislation at hand.

A favorite way to contact your representatives is to write to them on their legislature's website

One of the great traditions in democracy is writing letters to your representatives.

For anyone familiar with the former blog Activism News, there is a myriad of methods possible to the constituent for doing so.

One of my favorites is to go directly to my official's own website and write my letter there.  There is always directions there on how to proceed.

All elected officials have their primary websites on their respective houses of legislation sites.  For instance, your US Representative's webpage will be at www.house.gov.

Take this method to heart and your representative will appreciate your cordial visit.

Titles of bills

Have you ever heard the yummy titles of some major bills making their way through legislation?

I can make some up:  "Americans are our first priority act," or "taxpayer relief act."

If you dig deeply into most bills, there is a lot more going on.  Much debate and discussions may fundamentally alter them before the final votes on them are in.

Don't be fooled by the name of some bills-- read more into them and follow them through the legislative process for honest consideration.