Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 7:49:15 PM
By Philip Klein on 12.16.09
The Senate Republican leadership believes that the
parliamentarian allowed Democrats to violate the rules of the
Senate by allowing Sen. Bernie Sanders to cut off the reading of
his single-payer proposal.
When an amendment is introduced, it has to be read on the Senate
floor unless the rest of the Senate agrees to cut off the
reading, and typically, the requirement is waived through
"unanimous consent." Yet today, Sen. Tom Coburn insisted that
Sanders' 767 page bill be read on the Senate floor, which was on
pace to take more than 12 hours.
But about three hours into the reading, Sanders withdrew his
amendment, and this stopped the reading of the bill -- even
without unanimous consent.