Old Tricks: Senate Votes On ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Without Reading Bill, House Breaks Transparency Pledge

The U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to approve legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff despite having only 3 minutes to read the 154-page bill and budget score.

Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM.

The bill is 154-pages and includes several provisions that are unrelated to the fiscal cliff . . . Read more from this story HERE.

House Transparency Rule Toast

When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a Senate bill to avoid the fiscal cliff around 10:45 PM on Tuesday, it violated its pledge to allow three days for the public to read the legislation, a promise House Republicans made to voters before the 2010 elections.

The House passed the bill with a vote of 257-167 in evening on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the Senate had drafted and passed the bill close to 2:00 AM Tuesday morning.

In its Pledge to America document, House Republicans promised: “We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square . . . no more hiding legislative language from . . . the public. Read more from this story HERE.