Democrats cannot stop President Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, but the party whose North Star is opposition to Trump is doing whatever it can to delay his victory.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told his caucus he will force the Senate clerk to read the mammoth piece of legislation in its entirety, The Hill reported Saturday. The delay tactic could force the Senate to waste over half a day’s time before moving forward with the bill.
The reading is expected to begin early Saturday evening after a vote on a motion to proceed to the legislation, delaying a mandatory twelve hours of debate before moving to amendment votes and final passage.
The Senate, which operates on a volatile mixture of consensus and exhaustion, almost always waives the reading of legislation by unanimous consent – the process that also enables modern Senate leaders to schedule votes and debate and speed through many parliamentary requirements.
Schumer’s stunt will force the Senate to languish as a staff member laboriously reads complicated text referencing statutes and codes unintelligible to even the most skilled attorneys.
After weeks of often tense discussions culminating in what seemed like an end-of-week impasse, Republicans unveiled a big, beautiful bill text after midnight Saturday morning, signaling the intent to progress nquickly to move the bill.
In a world of immediacy, the Senate’s glacial pace appears futile and anachronistic from the outside. But when things come together, they tend to do so quickly.
Despite a handful of potential holdouts, most notably Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Republicans are anxious to get moving and send a product to the House and then to Trump’s desk.
Schumer’s latest gambit delays that plan, and – as may be his true intention – imperils Trump’s July 4 deadline for signing the legislation.
Yet that deadline was manufactured by Trump and Senate leaders largely to force often overly-deliberate Senators into action. And whenever Trump’s signature legislation passes – even if later in July, Trump and his supporters will certainly celebrate.
Schumer might be trying to look tough after a disastrous about-face in March, when he backed a Republican-supported government funding bill after previously pledging his opposition. Amid the backlash from his own party, Schumer delayed the start of his book tour.
A poll conducted almost two months later showed Schumer’s approval rating underwater by a whopping 25 percent.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
