You can, most of the time. The Library of Congress has a service called “Thomas” (named after Thomas Jefferson) where you can read and track legislation as it makes its way through the legislative process. Of course it is useless for those bills, like “Porkulus” that are written in the dead of night and passed in the morning. But for most bills the text is there, and a summary by the Congressional Research Service. The summaries I have read tend to be down-the-middle and factual. Web address is:
http://thomas.loc.gov/