Senate Democrats are poised to pass historic health care reform legislation out of their chamber and into Conference Committee with the House Thursday morning at 7:00am. The final procedural hurdle was passed Wednesday when a cloture vote of 60-39 ended debate on the underlying bill. All 58 Democrats and two Independents have remained united throughout the week and are expected to do the same on Christmas Eve. Unlike procedural votes aimed at ending filibusters, Thursday's vote requires only a simple majority of 51 yeas. Thursday's roll call will mark the 25th straight day the Senate has been in session, only one day short of matching the record of 26 set in 1917 as Congress, and the country, prepared to enter World War I.
The vote was originally scheduled for 7:00pm Thursday, but was eventually moved to the morning to allow Senators and their staffs time to make it home for the Christmas holiday. On Wednesday, the Senate rejected a number of points of order, one of them questioning the bill's constitutionality, introduced by Republicans and designed to stall the process even further.
To read more, click for articles from The Hill, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment