Hope and Fail

Obama’s first bill fails sunlight test

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act two days after it cleared Congress — three days short of his promise to allow five days for public comment before signing legislation.

Today President Obama signed his first bill — and broke one of his signature campaign promises.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act made it through Congress on Jan. 27 and was presented to the president yesterday (on Jan. 28). Today he signed it.

During the campaign, and even on the first post of the new White House Blog, the president promised to post all non-emergency legislation on his Web site for five days to allow for public review and comments before signing.

Back in September, in a speech touting his credentials on reform, the president told a crowd in Green Bay, WI:

When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as President, you will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.

The president’s campaign Web site echoed the same:

Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

And the White House’s new blog opened with this:

One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

With his first bill signing, President Obama has thrown all of that out. The bill did make it to the White House Web site — two hours after it was signed.

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