I don't know about the rules in the US Congress, but in the British and Canadian Parliaments, a bill can't be voted on without being read aloud to the house two (or maybe it's three) times. I used to think that was weird, but I'm starting to see the wisdom in it.
Of course, they cheat nowadays by including other material "by reference," so that the bill just says, e.g., "The Massively Convoluted and Bloated Set of Miscellaneous Spending Plans Intended to Get the Country back to Work, presented to this House on 20 February 2009 by the Right Honourable Minister for Government Efficiency, and amended by the Amendments to the Massively Convoluted and Bloated Set of Miscellaneous Spending Plans Intended to Get the Country Back to Work adopted on 19 February 2009 by the Special Select Committee for Parliamentary Continuity and presented to this House and adopted on 20 February 2009, is hereby the Law of the Land." As tangled as that is, you can read it aloud two or three times in just a few minutes, while the MCBSMSPIGCBW is free to run to, say, 1200 or more pages, and the Amendments to several hundred more pages.
Here's a revolutionary idea to think about: a constitutional amendment stating that no bill, motion, resolution, or other item of business can be adopted by either house of Congress unless it, and all documents referred to in it, directly or indirectly, has first been read aloud twice to that house--once when presented, and once, as amended, before the vote on it.
Not likely to be politically viable at the moment (apparently), but maybe the day will come.
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