Filed under: Senate, House, Democrats, Republicans, Health Care, Obama Administration, Congress, Health Care EndgameWith the stakes as high as any vote could get, Democrats prepared to cast their final votes on health care reform Sunday, with an impasse over abortion funding unresolved, and with their total support still shy of the necessary 216 needed to win approval of the bill.
Democratic leaders announced Saturday that the House will hold a series of three votes on Sunday-- first a procedural one on the rules of the debate, then a vote on the changes House Democrats have sought to the Senate health care bill; and finally a vote on the Senate bill itself.
Whether those three pieces of legislation can win passage remained unclear Saturday night as a small but crucially important faction of anti-abortion Democrats, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), continued to withhold their support for the final bill because of language drafted in the Senate that Stupak said amounts to taxpayer funding of abortion.
Although seven Democrats who voted against the bill last year have changed their votes, three yes votes from November have announced they will vote no this time. The Hill newspaper reported that of the 37 votes that Democrats could afford to lose from their majority and still gain passage of the bill on Sunday, 36 have announced that they will vote no or are leaning in that direction. Roughly 20 Democrats were still undecided about how they wouldl vote as late as Saturday night.
The House will begin the final debate on the health care bill at 1 p.m. Sunday, with votes expected to begin about 6:00 p.m.. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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