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Sunday, October 13, 2013

What Chile Could Teach The United States About Preventing Government Shutdowns

What Chile Could Teach The United States About Preventing Government Shutdowns

Chile’s urgency provision is rooted in an important insight in constitutional design. It recognizes that legislation sometimes arises that is so important it must become the immediate business of the legislature, and that a forcing mechanism is sometimes necessary to ensure that such legislation receives a timely vote. Were a similar provision inserted into the United States Constitution — one allowing the president to bring a bill to the House floor and force a vote even against the House leadership’s will — that would likely be enough to end our current impasse and prevent leaders like Speaker Boehner from unilaterally vetoing legislation that enjoys majority support in the Congress.

Opinion: Republicans can’t ignore minority voters - Rob Paral - POLITICO.com

according to my research, based on U.S. Census Bureau age and citizenship data, Asian and Latino youth and newly naturalized U.S. citizens will make up 34 percent of newly eligible voters at the time of the 2014 elections in 55 Republican-held congressional districts.



Opinion: Republicans can’t ignore minority voters - Rob Paral - POLITICO.com