If Congress sits on a bill, does it hatch?

Congress has not one, but TWO bills on primary election reform, and either one would be better than what we have now.   And each house has a matching version of both reform plans, so they don’t need to conference to get these sent to the President.  All they need to do is vote them out of committee and get them to the floor.

1. Regional Plan – S. 1905 and H.R. 3487 Regional Presidential Primary and Caucus Act of 2007

2. Interregional Plan -  (Levin / Nelson) S. 2024 Fair and Representative Presidential Primaries Act of 2007, and H.R. 1523 Interregional Presidential Primary and Caucus Act of 2007

So what do they think will happen?  If they just sit on the bills in committee, they’ll become law by osmosis?  Is this like the student that puts the homework under his pillow hoping that his brain will study it overnight?  Or hiding dirty dishes in the cupboard before guests come over and hoping they’ll become clean?  For all I know, the Congress is working on these bills in committee right now.  I haven’t heard back from our California Senators yet, and I haven’t found the status of these bills, other than “in committee.”  (and I feel very official when I say “the Congress”)

I’m sure both the Senate and the House are busy with lots of other important bills, but these are relatively straightforward reforms.  Schedule them for a vote in committee.  Bring them to the floor. And vote on them.  This has to be done before 2010, or we’ll be stuck with the same “leap-frog the other states” primary scheduling in 2012.

Do me a favor.  Contact your member of the House and your Senators and ask them which of these plans they support.  Ask them to tell you the status.  And ask them to report at least one of the bills out of committee to the floor.  Ask them to fix the primary system.  It’s broken.

Let’s get it done and move on to fixing the electoral college.