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The top Democrat in the Senate plans to inflict maximum pain on Senate Republicans in their march to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” before lawmakers even get a chance to debate the legislative behemoth.
Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to force clerks on the Senate floor to read the entirety of the GOP’s 940-page megabill. His move to drain as much time as possible will come after Republicans vote on a key procedural test to open debate on the legislation.
“I will object to Republicans moving forward on their Big, Ugly Bill without reading it on the Senate floor,” Schumer said on X. “Republicans won’t tell America what’s in the bill
“So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor,” he said. “We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it.”
Indeed, staffers were seen carting the bill onto the Senate floor in preparation for the all-night read-a-thon.
Schumer’s move is expected to take up to 15 hours and is designed to allow Senate Democrats more time to parse through the myriad provisions within the massive legislative text. Ultimately, it will prove a smokescreen as Senate Republicans will continue to march toward a final vote.
Once the bill reading is done, 20 hours of debate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans will begin, likely early Sunday morning. Democrats are expected to use their entire 10-hour chunk, while Republicans will go far under their allotted time.
Then comes the “vote-a-rama” process, where lawmakers can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the bill.
Democrats will again look to extract as much pain as possible during that process, while Republicans, particularly senators that have lingering issues with key Medicaid and land sale provisions, will continue to try and shape and mold the bill.
The last time clerks were forced to read the entirety of a bill during the budget reconciliation process was in 2021, when Senate Democrats held the majority in the upper chamber.
At the time, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., demanded that the entire, over-600-page American Rescue Act be read aloud. Schumer, who was the Senate Majority Leader attempting to ram then-President Joe Biden’s agenda through the upper chamber, objected to the reading.
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