Washington at Its Worst: Senate Passes Nonexistent Bill

The Daily Signal ^ | September 21, 2016 | Rachel Bovard

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

On Tuesday night, the Senate voted to proceed to the continuing resolution, a bill that will allegedly fund the government until Dec. 9.

The only problem is that there isn’t actually a bill yet.

There is no text. There is no agreement between Democrats and Republicans on what the bill will fund—Planned Parenthood, the Export-Import Bank, control of the internet—all of it remains a mystery.

Yet the Senate voted 89-7 to proceed to this nonexistent bill.

The Senate operates under complex parliamentary rules that require a series of votes in order to “proceed to” or “get onto” a bill. The vote Tuesday night was the first in what will be a series of votes on the continuing resolution, or spending bill.

And Senate leadership tried to pitch this as simply a process vote. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., communications director tweeted that this vote was “just procedural” and “not a vote on the CR [continuing resolution]” or on Zika funding. Various reporters tweeted that this was just a vote on a “shell bill,” and that the text of the continuing resolution would be crafted at a later date.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The Senate leadership: becoming more powerful and yet more useless at the same time.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If con is the opposite of pro, then Congress is the opposite of progress.

PING!

[nicepaco]

They should send the blank to the president who can insert anything he wants then sign it. I know it sounds stupid but this simplifies the process that they have been using.

Or they could get drug tested and turn themselves in to rehab and I don’t mean the nice one at the Hard Rock.

[nicepaco]

They should send the blank to the president who can insert anything he wants then sign it. I know it sounds stupid but this simplifies the process that they have been using.

Or they could get drug tested and turn themselves in to rehab and I don’t mean the nice one at the Hard Rock.

[Amendment10]

Compliments of the ill-conceived 17th Amendment.

[hal ogen]

What procedural nitwits...and traitors to the Citizens.

[Kenny]

McConnell refuses to attach delay to hand off Internet. Congress is running out the clock on this. MSM not reporting a word on it, another conspiracy to silence the American people.

John Bolton on Obama’s Internet Handover: ‘Within Ten Years, the Internet as We Know It Will End’

[TBP]

Too bad — I was hoping for a shutdown. Look what happened after the last one!

[a fool in paradise]

We have to vote for it to find out what’s in it! - Pelousy

[zeugma]

I’m waiting for someone to appoint a horse to the senate. Nothing could be less apropos.

[Political Junkie Too]

This sounds just as bad as the House's deeming a bill to have passed.

Can there be a situation where the Senate votes on a bill before it receives it, and then the House deems and passes the bill that it never voted on directly?

-PJ