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Virginia AG Warns Pelosi: Don't Bypass Direct Vote
Virginia's attorney general urged U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to use an arcane parliamentary tactic to pass health care reform without a direct vote, warning in a letter Wednesday that the move might be unconstitutional.
Republican Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, who last month went to court to oppose the federal plan to regulate greenhouse gases, said in the letter that using the so-called "deem and pass" rule would expose President Barack Obama's signature domestic initiative to a constitutional challenge.
Cuccinelli joins other Republicans who have opposed the possible maneuver, which both political parties have used in the past. Under the procedure, the Senate-passed health bill would be "deemed" to have passed if House members vote in favor of a rule governing another bill.
"Based upon media interviews and statements which I have seen, you are considering this approach because it might somehow shield members of Congress from taking a recorded vote on an overwhelmingly unpopular Senate bill," Cuccinelli wrote in the letter to the Democratic speaker. "This is an improper purpose under the bicameralism requirements of Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution, one of the purposes of which is to make our representatives fully accountable for their votes."
Cuccinelli's letter comes less than two weeks after he weighed in on another hot-button issue, gay rights. The first-term attorney general advised Virginia's public colleges to rescind any anti-discrimination policies covering gay people, saying they could not offer such protections without General Assembly approval.
The letter prompted protests on college campuses. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell sought to quell the uproar by issuing a written directive barring state discrimination based on sexual orientation. His directive is just a policy statement and does not have the force of law.
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