Priceless…

A typographical error in a $39 billion U.S. domestic spending-cut bill signed into law by
President George W. Bush on Wednesday could mean another vote on the measure that passed only after Vice President Dick Cheney intervened with a tie-breaking vote.

A Senate aide said that a clerical error written into the bill as it bounced between the House and Senate resulted in the two chambers passing slightly different versions.

Legislation becomes law only when the president signs a measure that has been passed in identical form by the House and Senate. Aides in both the House and Senate said it was not yet clear how lawmakers would fix the problem.

In this case, according to the Senate aide, a “poor woman in the basement” clerk’s office typed in “36 months,” instead of “13 months” related to Medicare payments for oxygen tanks.

The Senate aide said the bill, as signed by Bush, contained the 13-month provision intended by both chambers. The legislation would save $39 billion over five years beginning this year.

I feel bad for the “poor woman in the basement.”