Thursday, December 16, 2010

Reading the whole dang bill

Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.

Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill in rotating shifts around the clock — taking breaks to drink water and pop throat lozenges  — to keep legislative business on track, according to a Democratic leadership aide.

Mostly, I think this is cute. But if the clerks decide to skip a few paragraphs or pages here and there, who the heck is going to notice? It's not like senators -- even the Republican ones -- will be sitting in the chambers, listening to the whole thing. And I guess it's kind of funny when so much of the Congressional Record is made up of "speeches" that members never actually gave, but entered in the record. Maybe it's time Jim DeMint be forced to deliver his paeans to 3M's specialty film and media products division during actual Senate time.

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