"Beautiful" Enough to Read Out Loud? Senate Hears Formal Reading of "Bill"

The U.S. Senate started a slow step towards considering the “Big Beautiful Bill” budget package Sunday with a reading of the entire bill.

Out loud.

All 940 pages of it.

The bill passed a key procedural vote Saturday night, and then moved to a formal reading of the entire document in the Senate chamber.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn underscored his support for the bill in a statement in which he said the legislation “will avoid a massive tax increase on Texas families, secure our southern border, remove burdensome taxes on Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights, and chart our country on a path toward fiscal sanity after years of frivolous spending in Washington under Joe Biden.”

Cornyn also praised the inclusion of $13.5 billion to reimburse states like Texas which have expended billions to reinforce the U.S. border during the Biden Administration border crisis.

The lengthy reading of the bill is a custom normally bypassed in the Senate but Democrats insisted on it in what is widely regarded as a delaying tactic. The reading process was expected to be finished by Sunday afternoon and debate on the bill to start then.