Republicans Force Reading Of Health Care Bill

United States Capitol
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Hope Senate clerks brought some water with them to work today.

The clerks are currently reading the 383-page manager’s amendment unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid the morning, word-for-word.

If you don’t feel like listening to C-Span for the next few hours, read the amendment here.

This is a procedural tactic Republicans started using this week to stall Democratic efforts to pass the Senate’s version of the health care bill before Christmas.

Democrats keep trying to waive the reading of the bill so debate can continue, but Republicans object to the reading.

The Senate clerks are trading off the reading of the language, and as of this writing, they are in the ballpark of page 43.

When this happened with Sen. Bernie Sander’s amendment earlier this week, he eventually gave up and withdrew the legislation to break the quasi-filibuster. That’s unlikely to happen since what’s being read aloud will be the final Senate compromise.

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