An opinion piece by Richard L. Hall, “Secrecy not worst part of Senate health care bill process,” appears in today’s Detroit Free Press.
In it, Hall argues that lack of transparency is not always a bad thing. “[C]losed doors sometimes make honest deliberation and compromise possible,” he writes.
But when the majority legislates without the minority--as is now the case with Senate republicans drafting a new version of the American Health Care Act without input from democrats--Hall worries that the minority party will not only disagree with the policies that emerge, they will become justifiably angry about them.
Hall suggests that the Senate empower a bipartisan committee to outline procedural reforms that preserve minority rights and are “independent of momentary politics.”
Richard L. Hall is a professor of political science and public policy. His research focuses on American national politics. Hall is the author of Participation in Congress (Yale University Press 1996), winner of the American Political Science Association's Richard F. Fenno Prize.