Seems like riders would become a huge problem under that system. I guess you could try to make them unconstitutional, but a rider is hard to define; it seems like you would always be able to sneak unpleasant but tangentially-related things in.
This would result congress becoming a body whose major action was reaffirming existing laws that were expiring, and would minimize their ability to take on further responsibility.
There are many cases where they have in the past given laws a time limit, and most of those either
- get up/down extended, at which point why bother with the limit, or
- mire congress for weeks because someone decided to pick a fight over a normally non-controversial law.
I'm not sure that would improve the system or help us move more power back from czars and appointed directors toward our elected representatives.
