dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, told a constituent Monday night that it would be impossible for the nation's elected leaders to read every piece of legislation that comes up for a vote.
His answer came during a question-and-answer teleconference session. Murtha's office staff called 39,700 households in his district and left a message at 18,000 homes. About 7,000 people joined the hourlong conversation for at least two minutes.
A Perryopolis woman asked Murtha to pledge to vote only on bills he's read. The issue recently came up in the U.S. House of Representatives when members had little time to read a 300-page amendment to the climate change bill.
"None of us have the time to read every bill," Murtha said. "We depend on the committee responsible for it."
Murtha said the House and Senate have a committee system with experts for each committee. That allows each committee to be aware of the legislation before it and explain the legislation to others. He compared it to seeing a doctor for health problems. A patient depends on a doctor for information just as committees depend on each other, he said.
Murtha described the complaint that all bills aren't read as "political obstructionism."
That was one of many issues that came up during the call. Twenty-two out of 149 people with questions got to pose their inquiry to Murtha. Callers had to tell their questions to a Murtha staffer and were then called on to ask the question to Murtha. He was peppered with questions about Iraq, health care and the economy.
Murtha said he recently met with Brownsville Hospital officials to discuss coming up with a plan to reopen the facility. He said he thinks Gov. Ed Rendell can be convinced to put $1 million of stimulus money toward the hospital if there's a plan to run it.
"We're doing everything we can to make sure that once we get a plan, we can use stimulus money and other money for the Brownsville Hospital," Murtha said.
A Jefferson man asked what steps Murtha was taking to trim the federal deficit.
Murtha said he feels strongly that the federal government needs to pay as it goes instead of borrowing money for programs.
"We have to get it under control," he said. "But we have to get people back to work first."
A Monessen man questioned how a second stimulus package would help the economy when the first one hasn't created jobs.
Murtha admitted that it's been several months since the package was approved and "we haven't seen any results." He said Rendell wants to make sure the money goes to the right place.
Murtha said he would not have created the stimulus package the way President Barack Obama designed it. He said he would have had more infrastructure projects in the package.
Still, he said, he's hopeful it will have an impact in the next six months.