Senator forces reading of “Big Un-Beautiful Bill” but that’s already required

A peculiar concept played out in the U.S. Senate over the weekend, as Republicans forced their Big Un-beautiful Bill through without public input.

Forced so much, in fact, that the parliamentarian couldn’t even read some of the amendments — they were handwritten on the fly and added to the 900-some-page document.

Before it passed the Senate, Democrats forced a reading of the bill through a rule known as “unanimous consent.” It sounds dirtier than it is. It’s a strategy Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson used back in 2021.

The peculiar thing about this “stalling” tactic is — it’s not a tactic. The rule is that the U.S. Senate is supposed to read its bills aloud. But thanks to unanimous consent, all 50 senators just agree to skip that step. In other words, they agree to not do their jobs.

It made me wonder if we should be doing this at other levels of government. Probably not at the city or county level — those board and council members are essentially donating their time on top of day jobs. But as Wisconsin’s state Legislature passes the new two-year budget, shouldn’t they at least read it out loud?

And absolutely, the U.S. Senate should be doing this with all of their bills.

But here’s the thing: instead of pawning off the job to clerks — as happened this past weekend, and when RonJohn did four years ago — I think Senators themselves should have to read the bill. At random.

Because the way this works, Senators don’t even have to be in the chamber during the reading. They just go into what’s called the “cloakroom” — and with the Senate’s average age being 64, I imagine most were napping.

The reading took 16 hours and started at 11 p.m. Saturday night. Totally normal stuff.

So instead of earning $174,000 a year and just unanimously deciding not to do their work, Senators themselves should be requirement to read their bill and stay in the chamber while it’s happening.

As I see it, I’m Rick Solem.