Which program is pickling and why? That seems like a very strange thing to do in this situation. The only time to pickle something is if you need to represent a non-string object on disk, but Python ...

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, led the bipartisan deal, but a trio of Democratic caucus members, Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., ...