The ayes have it 60-39 with all Democrats and virtually all Republicans voting for or against respectively. Sen. Bunning (R-KY) did not vote. This was the final vote on health care reform and only a majority of 51 Senators was needed to pass this historic legislation.
(They were laughing because Sen. Majority Leader Reid accidentally said Nay instead of Aye, which he promptly corrected)
It’s not the best bill and much work needs to be done to make it better, but the bill does put in a framework for universal coverage in place. That, in itself, is a major milestone. The bill now heads to conference in order to unify the House and Senate bills.
The Senate passed the Defense Appropriations bill this morning on a vote of 88-10. This was the last of the Appropriations bills for FY 2010 marking the end of the appropriations process for this year. 9 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted against the $636 billion dollar defense spending bill.
Meanwhile, Sen. Majority Leader Reid and the Democratic Leadership looks like they’ve finally amassed the 60 votes necessary to break a Republican filibuster when Sen. Nelson agreed to a new compromise plan. In the compromise plan, reproductive rights coverage in the new Exchange will now be subject to a state opt out provision. Also, the Medicaid expansion is intact but Nebraska, Sen. Nelson’s home state, will get increased federal funding for the state’s Medicaid expense portion. Senate leadership wants a vote on the health care reform bill by Christmas.
While the compromises have been a bitter pill to swallow, it is still better to pass the bill and get some framework for universal coverage in place. The employer mandate to provide health insurance for their employees (small businesses with a small number of employees are exempt) and the Medicaid expansion will help out a lot of people. However, health care reform is not complete with this bill. More work will have to be done in the future even if it takes reconciliation to do it.
That was quick. The Senate on Thursday, the same day they re-introduced the bill for debate, passed 71-28. 14 Republicans joined 57 Democrats to vote for the bill. Sen. Bayh and Sen. McCaskill were the only two Democrats to vote against with the rest of the opposition coming from the Republicans. Military/Veterans, State/Foreign Operations, Financial Services, and the Labor/HHS/Education bills are the last four appropriations bill needed to be voted on by the Senate although that doesn’t count votes for conference appropriations bills but those go much faster than initial floor debates.
Yesterday, the Senate picked up the Military/Veterans Appropriations bill.
In a party line vote yesterday, the Senate blocked the Vitter Census Amendment 60-39 from being attached to the Commerce/Justice/Science Appropriations bill. Sen. Vitter wanted a question inserted in census forms asking about a person’s immigration status for the purpose of not counting undocumented people in Congressional apportionment. The Vitter Census Amendment stands in marked contrast to the US Constitution which expressly states:
“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State [. . .]“
60 Democrats voted to block the amendment while 39 Republicans voted against with Sen. McCain of Arizona declining to vote. This margin may hide the true number for or against the measure because the vote seems to be a procedural question to invoke cloture and end debate on Vitter’s patently stupid amendment. Republicans may have been compelled to advance a caucus member’s pet project, but the fact that Snowe, Collins, and Lugar voted with their fellow Republicans on Vitter’s behalf is disconcerting. Expect this measure to come up again if and when an immigration bill takes center stage in the 111th Congress.
No word yet on whether Sen. Vitter wants to triple the amount of representation prostitutes get in Congressional apportionment.
In perhaps the widest vote margin of any bill this year, the Unemployment Benefits Extension bill passed with flying colors yesterday. 58 Democrats and 40 Republicans all voted for the bill, which grants an extension of unemployment benefits coverage, with zero Senators in opposition. Sen. Byrd and Sen. McCaskill did not make it to the vote – Sen. Byrd could not make it to the vote because of his recuperation from a fall while I’m sure Sen. McCaskill had valid reasons for missing the vote. If they were on the Senate floor, that would have made it 100-0, but alas, the Unemployment extension bill has to settle for an overwhelming 98-0 vote
Still, it would behoove the Republicans to remember that people also lose their health insurance after becoming unemployed. In fact, millions of people have lost their health coverage since the start of the recession, and that’s on top of the 46 million Americans who already don’t get health care. Fortunately, all signs indicate the House will vote on health care as soon as this weekend, something that is greatly needed to help the uninsured and the unemployed with their health care needs.
The Senate has since moved on to the Commerce/Justice/Science Appropriations Bill.
UPDATE: Obama to sign unemployment benefit extension bill tomorrow (Friday). Help is on the way!
Both the House and the Senate unveiled the House and Senate health care bills this week. Both have negotiated rate public options but the Senate adds an opt out provision for the states.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, they’re still working on the Unemployment Benefits Extension bill, but they’ve been passing cloture votes with ease. We’ll see if they can pass the bill today.
The Senate yesterday rejected the Medicare “Doc-Fix” Bill on a vote of 47-53. 13 Democrats joined 40 Republicans to filibuster the bill with detractors saying the non deficit neutrality of the $248 billion dollar bill was a cause for concern. Still, the bill that would have permanently fixed a Medicare formula responsible for payment cuts could be brought back in another form if the bill is fully paid for. Today though, the deficit proved to be too much of a hurdle for this bill to overcome.
The Senate has since moved on to conference votes on appropriations bills.
The Senate on Tuesday passed the Defense Appropriations bill on an overwhelming 93-7 vote. Seven Appropriations bills have now passed the US Senate with just five more left to go. Up next is the Commerce/Justice/Science Appropriations bill.
Next week is supposed to be the Columbus Day Recess, but since Majority Leader Reid canceled a portion of the recess, the Senate will work for three days next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They’ll probably get done with the C/J/S App. bill then slowly but surely finishing up the Appropriations work for this year. Still don’t know if they can finish all the appropriations bills before the health care floor debate, but debate for appropriations bills average to about a week per app. bill so using that metric, if the health care floor debate starts late October, then the Senate will be a bit short on finishing appropriations work before the Thanksgiving break. They could always finish the app. bills after Thanksgiving though.
The Senate passed the Interior Appropriations bill yesterday on a vote of 77-21 with 20 Republicans and 1 Democrat voting against. Sen. Bayh was the only Democrat to vote against the Interior Appropriations bill. I wonder why …
Up next is the Defense Appropriations bill. I made an error about a previous Defense bill a few months back, which was actually the Defense Authorization bill. The Difference? Apparently, authorization bills only outlines the parameters and conditions of the money to be spent while appropriations actually writes the check to spend that money. Authorization is important to change current policy.
Also, well wishes to Sen. Byrd (D-WV) who was released from the hospital this week after an accident at his NoVa home. He is now recuperating in his home.
The Senate on Thursday easily passed the Transportation Appropriations bill on a vote of 73-25. With this vote, the chamber is well on its way in finishing the 12 Appropriations bills they need to clear for this year.
In other news, HHS Secretary Sebelius joshingly reprimanded Chuck Todd, chief White House correspondent of NBC News, when he incorrectly sneezed onto his hands during a press conference. You’re supposed to sneeze onto your elbow instead of on your hands. The new way is more sanitary than the ones many people are used to, including myself, but it does take practice to break the old habit.
