Senate Democrats’ delay tactics have come to an end, but Senate Republicans are still some distance from holding a final vote on President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
On Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) employed a procedural maneuver requiring Senate clerks to read aloud the full text of the 940-page GOP-backed bill. The reading stretched well into Sunday, taking nearly 16 hours to complete, Fox News reported.
Ahead of the ultimately successful—though contentious—procedural vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would require clerks to read the entire bill aloud. After the nearly 16-hour reading concluded, Schumer posted on X, saying, “Republicans are squirming.”
“I know damn well they haven’t read the bill, so we’re going to make them,” he said, though Democrats rarely read their own lengthy bills, lending some to criticize Schumer’s action as a political stunt.
It’s a rarely used tactic that Schumer and Senate Democrats employed as part of their broader strategy to pressure Republicans, following the GOP’s continued refusal to seriously engage with much of President Trump’s legislative agenda.
The last time Senate clerks were required to read an entire bill on the floor was in 2021, when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) objected and demanded that then-President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan be read aloud, Fox noted.
