That’s the number of amendments pending on the 2011 spending bill that the House is currently considering. They won’t all get a vote — probably many will be withdrawn voluntarily (some already have). But it’s a wonderful thing to see so many members participate for real in the debate over spending levels for the rest of this year. We haven’t seen this kind of representative democracy in the House for at least a decade.

The latest amendments to be filed can be viewed here, beginning on the bottom right of the first page, and the original 403 amendments are here. Note that any amendment that says it adds funds on page 359 of the bill is a genuine spending cut (the “deficit reduction account” is on page 359 of the bill).