Needed: One Proofreader

As important as legislation is, how would they compile the entire bill, except 34 vital pages, and send that version to the White House for the president to sign (or veto)? Are there no proofreaders on Capitol Hill? Is there nobody to double check their work?

Come on people, it shouldn't be that hard to keep a piece of legislation together, in one place, no matter how many pages are attached.

Democrats are picking up the pieces after an embarrassing technical gaffe that delayed a triumphant rejection of President Bush's veto of a massive farm bill.

Members from both parties hoped to bring the $290 billion bill — which includes election-year subsidies for farmers and food stamps for the poor — back to their districts over Memorial Day. But that is looking less likely now that the legislation may have to be passed all over again due to a printing error.

The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly, 316-108, to override Bush's veto of the legislation earlier in the day.

The Senate had been expected to follow suit quickly, but action stalled after the discovery that a 34-page section of the legislation had been omitted from the printed bill sent to the White House. That means Bush vetoed a different bill from the one Congress passed, raising questions that the eventual law would be unconstitutional.

I am beginning to wonder if this was truly accidental. One page, maybe. 34? It's unlikely that nobody noticed that.

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