2000 page laws

[SOCALS]

I wonder how they make sure that every single sentence in those huge laws they vote for and then publish is exactly what it was supposed to be when they prepared that law. Is it possible that some clerk involved in the typing and publishing of the laws and drafts can make changes on his own and no one will ever notice because no one actually read the whole thing and remembers the final version? How do they manage these gigantic drafts and is abuse by the insiders possible?

[lapfog_1]

1. It's happened in the past.

But both the Senate and the House have staff who's job it is to keep tract of language and changes.

Then, of course, there are these computer thingy's that are pretty clever at comparing text.

[SOCALS]

2. If there are different versions

of the same draft, how can they be sure that they have the right words in the final version? How many people does it take to verify each and every sentence?

[lapfog_1]

3. Versions are numbered and "change bared" (the changed text is indicated by a version color

or other visual clue).

There is also a specific staff member (usually senior staff to the author of the bill or committee chairperson) who is the "keeper of the bill" and has staff that tracks the adoption of amendments, etc.

on a major piece of legislation like this one, I would guess that the staff tracking just this bill is over a dozen, perhaps more. There will also be staff that would be tracking the other laws that this one is modifying, and even other legal staff who would be responsible for rendering opinions on the constitutional aspects. The total staff working on the bill could possibly be pushing 50 or 100 (that would include staff for the opposition that will be looking for loopholes and other gotchas).

Then, there are always the lobbyists running around, offering to help. Many bills are initially completely authored by lobbyists and their staff.