DeMint Will Force Reading of Omnibus
The Hill reports:
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will force readings of both a nuclear arms treaty and $1.1 trillion spending bill that could eat up hours of the remaining lame-duck Congress.
DeMint will invoke a senatorial privilege to ask that texts of both the New START Treaty and the 2011 omnibus spending bill be read aloud on the Senate floor.
The readings could take seven to 12 hours to verbalize the START Treaty, while the omnibus could take 40 to 60 hours, according to a spokesman for DeMint.
The readings could eat up a substantial amount of time in the closing days of the lame-duck Congress, in which Senate Democrats are racing against the clock to pass through a number of priorities. Democrats hope to pass a tax-cut bill, on which they'll vote Wednesday afternoon, along with a repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell," the START Treaty and the DREAM Act immigration bill.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) "hoped" in a floor speech Wednesday that DeMint would not force a full reading, calling the move a "colossal waste of time."
Floor readings of measures before the Senate are typically waived by unanimous consent without any objections. But if a senator were to require that lengthy bills be read, the delay could take hours. (The omnibus is over 1,900 pages.)
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