Film maker and political critic Jerrol Lebaron attended the Heritage Foundation’s Blogger Briefing on June 12, 2012 to address his problem with Washington’s shady legislative process.
“The political process is inadequate, inept, and manipulated,” Lebaron said. “It needs to be revamped from the ground up.”
Lebaron is the founder of Honor in Office, which according to its website is “a non-partisan committee with the sole purpose of getting integrity, honor, honesty and common sense back into government.”
Lebaron’s talk focused primarily on his latest project, “Fools on the Hill,” his self-financed documentary that exposes the misleading nature of bundled bills.
“Because there is something important in a bundled bill, it can force legislators to vote for things that would never get passed on their own,” Lebaron said. “We don’t want this, and no citizen wants members to miss important clauses because they are buried deep within a bundled bill, or inserted at the last minute.”
Lebaron affirmed that he has seen this corruption in Washington intensify over the past decade with little being done to correct it. He staunchly stressed that immediate government action is necessary to inform the American people and solve potential problems.
“Congress needs to pass a law (not a rule) that requires one subject per bill, and that requires the absolute final version of a bill (or allocation of funds) to be posted on the Internet far in advance of the final vote,” Lebaron said.
From July 17th-27th, Lebaron and Honor in Office supporters will be rallying on Capitol Hill to protest excessive legislative incompetence and to demand congressional reform.
Richard Thompson is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
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