Cleaver: House action was no April Fool's joke

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. obviously was not thrilled with today's House action, an action which indicated the House members should have kep on reading the Constitution until they actually knew what was in it:

I wish I could say this was an April Fool’s Day joke. Sadly, it is not.

As negotiations are underway with the Senate and White House to finally craft a budget deal to fund the government for the remainder of the year, the House today took up the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act." This is one of those bills whose title is great, but whose substance is suspicious to say the least.


From the Washington Post:

"What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that's what the American people are expecting." House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday morning at a news conference with other House Republican leaders. "The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [the House-passed bill that cuts $61 billion] will be the law of the land. In addition to that, it says that if all else fails, and the Senate brings about a shutdown, then members should not get their pay."


The House is now under new rules that require every bill submitted for consideration by the House to clearly state the Constitutional authority with which to carry out the measure. It will be interesting to see what this bill cites as its Constitutional authority. Because, as you, and I, and every single one of the eighth graders I was able to teach last week should know:

Section. 7.
Clause 2: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.

Again, I wish this were a joke, but some of my friends on the other side seem to believe that they can force a bill to become law by simply saying it is, all without the consent of the Senate or President.

Let us review once again. According to the Constitution, for a bill to become "law of the land" it must be passed by both the Senate and the House and be signed by the President. Therefore, the Government Shutdown Prevention Act is unconstitutional, on its face. I truly wish I was joking.