Senate Democrats on Friday complained about a bevy of handwritten changes to the Republican tax bill, and said many of them couldn’t be read even though senators were expected to be asked to vote on the bill in a matter of hours.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., found that one of the pages was so hard to read, he couldn’t even submit it as an exhibit in the Congressional Record.
Durbin took to the Senate floor Friday night to complain about the various handwritten amendments that Republicans were quickly adding to the bill. In exasperation, he held up a new proposed page 257 of the bill, which included a lengthy addition on the right-hand margin.
Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this? pic.twitter.com/JX8v1v4gyi
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) December 1, 2017
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also complained about the fast Senate process with a tweet showing the same page. “[I]f you are so intent on forcing middle class families to foot the bill so your donors can have a tax break, at least have the decency to find a printer,” she said.
After complaining on the floor, Durbin submitted that page to the Congressional Record. But he soon returned after being told he wasn’t allowed to submit that page, because it couldn’t be read.
“I’ve now been instructed that the personnel in the Senate cannot read this page the way it is currently written,” Durbin said on the floor. “Could I enter it as a graphic, or artwork, or something like that?”
I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0
— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 2, 2017
What he said. https://t.co/SB9lV8YrYX
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) December 2, 2017
Both parties have quickly scrawled on the pages of bills they are trying to past quickly. Democrats famously had hand-written notes in the Obamacare bill they were trying to pass years ago.
But Democrats on Friday were using it as an example of the lack of due process on the GOP tax bill. Durbin didn’t get any clear answers to his questions about why he couldn’t submit the page, but was told that Republicans would be allowed to submit the bill that includes handwritten sections.
The difference, he was told, was that the page he wanted to submit wouldn’t be relayed in a graphic form that would allow people to see the handwriting on the side.
“I was hoping that this could be entered into the record, and I asked for unanimous consent to enter it, believing that the handwritten portion would show up in the record,” Durbin said. “I’ve since been advised that there’ll have to be translators and interpreters who will later decide exactly what this says before it’s part of the Congressional Record.”
“I think I’ve made my point about where we stand in preparation for tax reform for America,” he said.
The Senate was still expected to vote on the bill sometime late Friday.
