Several Members of the House and the Senate have expressed their displeasure over the limited time they have to read the 5,593 page COVID relief bill before a vote to pass it.
A group of legislators, most of them being Republicans, took to social media Monday afternoon to express their displeasure regarding a 6-hour window to read the extensively long bill, as reported by Breitbart. Republican Representatives Chip Roy, Mark Green and Andy Biggs took to twitter to voice their concerns regarding the small amount of time for them to look over the legislation. Democratic Representative Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez also took to Twitter to express her displeasure.
“5600 pages. Votes allegedly in 6 hours. Neither Democrats nor Republicans should vote for this nonsense.” Texas Representative Chip Roy tweeted.
“My staff and I ctrl-F’d it as much as we could in the short time we had.” Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie tweeted in response to Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
“It’s not good enough to hear about what’s in the bill.” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Members of Congress need to see and read the bills we are expected to vote on.”
There were also several Senators that expressed their displeasure in regards to the large piece of legislation and the short time for them to read it. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul tweeted, “I will oppose this new debt, and continue to sound the alarm until we change our course” before stating that the bill was approximately 1.4 million words long. Texas Senator Ted Cruz stated that “@AOC is right” and it was “absurd” to have a bill “negotiated in secret” and then demand a vote on a bill no one can read.
The bill, which according to ABC News was $900 billion on top of a $1.4 trillion spending bill, passed both chambers last night. The House voted 359-53 in favor of passing the bill before the Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor as well, 92-6, with Senators Cruz and Paul voting “no” as reported by Newsweek. The bill now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk where he is expected to sign the bill later in the week according to ABC News.
While the bill is expected to provide Americans with $600 stimulus checks in the coming weeks and expand small business grants as reported by ABC News, concerns have been raised against the bill. One provision in the bill, introduced by Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, would make streaming copyrighted content illegally a felony, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter. Several content creators have voiced concerns that it could cause Youtubers and Streamers who received DMCA claims that they could face jail time.
In addition, according to CBS News, mixed-status immigrants, and in some cases illegal immigrants would be able to get $600 checks. In addition, some families would be able to get the first $1,200 check retroactively if they have one social security number-holder. Others have grown concern about the amount of foreign aid in the bill that will be sent to countries such as Burma and Sudan.
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