This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
WASHINGTON - Republicans in Congress, including Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, say Democrats are shutting them out of the legislative process, but their protests do not appear to match the record of the GOP-run House.
For the last two years, Bishop served as a member of the House Rules Committee, which under Republican control brought more bills to the floor under "closed rules" than any previous Congress.
In 1994, as speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, Bishop criticized proposals to open the legislative process, specifically the Rules Committee meetings, as shallow, and compared them to taking the doors off bathroom stalls.
As he left the House that July, he wrote a letter cautioning against knee-jerk reform. '' 'Open' government may be 'better,' but it also may only be 'voyeuristic' government with all the hidden negatives,'' he wrote.
Bishop says there is a "huge difference" between the way Republicans ran things and way the Democrats are railroading bills.
“These guys promised never to do that. That was their big openness ploy, and to be honest, they have written everything behind closed doors, so not only do we not have a chance for amendments, Democrats don't have a chance for amendments,” Bishop said. “Jim Matheson wouldn't be able to offer an amendment if he wanted to.”
Two years ago, Bishop landed a plum spot on the House Rules Committee, but because of the change in control of Congress, he has lost that spot in this Congress.
Democrats are looking to get out of the gate quickly and pass a broad package of bills - including expanding stem cell research, reforming lobbying rules, raising the minimum wage, slashing student loan interest rates, and axing subsidies to oil companies.
But to move things quickly, Democratic leaders are skipping committee hearings and bringing the measures directly to the floor, where members can vote for the bill or against it, but not amend it. Republicans say that rush to act has denied them a chance to influence the bills.
The GOP took control of the House in 1994, riding to power on The Contract With America, an agenda they sought to enact in the first 100 days of the new Congress. But those legislative proposals went through committee hearings, and some, like the ban on Congress imposing new unfunded mandates on states, were debated on the floor for days.