An overwhelming majority of the American public agrees with the principles of this resolution. A new Zogby poll, commissioned by Let Freedom Ring, found that 91 percent of Americans - overwhelming majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike - want all nonemergency legislation to be posted on the Internet for at least 72 hours before Congress votes on it. Even President Barack Obama agrees; during his campaign, he stated that he would not sign any nonemergency legislation unless it had been posted online for five days to permit the public to read and comment on it.

The August town hall gatherings proved that ordinary citizens can comprehend arcane legislative language, and they can ferret out egregious portions. The American people are persistently aggravated with the way things are done in Washington - and with good reason.

This year, sweeping legislative proposals that could fundamentally restructure our health care system, energy use, economic stimulus spending and vast segments of our overall economy are being debated. Regrettably, neither members of Congress nor the public have been given adequate time to study these major pieces of legislation before they're made law.

Take, for instance, the "cap-and-trade" bill the House recently passed. It is 1,428 pages long and has a price tag of $846 billion, but Congress and the public only had 16.5 hours to read the legislation before it was voted on.

The same thing happened with the stimulus bill and health care reform legislation. There were merely 12 hours available to review the stimulus bill's 1,073 pages, and committee members had only 14 hours and 43 minutes to read the 1,026 pages of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's proposal for health care reform.

Never mind that this is not nearly enough time for the public to review and comment on the bills - there is no feasible way that even well-staffed members of Congress can sufficiently comprehend all of the complexities present in bills that are more than 1,000 pages long in less than 24 hours.

Amending the House rules to require the online posting of bills for representatives and the public alike to read and review would change the legislative process for the better. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not agree with the American people on this issue. Instead, she is working to stall the "Read the Bill" resolution in the House Rules Committee. If this continues, the resolution will not even be voted on.

There is one way to get around the speaker's roadblock. Rep. Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, has filed a petition to force the speaker to schedule a vote on the resolution if it attracts 218 signatures from members of Congress. So far, 182 members have signed the petition, leaving it 36 short of reaching the House floor.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil is one of the co-sponsors of House Resolution 554. However, puzzlingly, he has so far failed to sign the petition that would bring it to the House floor for a vote. (Another Maryland House member, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, co-sponsored the bill and has signed the discharge petition.)

A cynic might conclude that he is in favor of the idea when it doesn't count - when it's stuck in the committee and going nowhere - but that when his vote could really make a difference, he's invisible. Invisibility is not what the public expects when it supports transparency.

The American people want transparency. They are willing to read the legislation, even if members of Congress are not - and they want the opportunity to do so.

Representative Kratovil has taken a commendable step in the right direction by co-sponsoring House Resolution 554. Now we urge him to sign the Walden discharge petition to get the bill on the floor of the House.