Senate

Upon returning to Washington, D.C. following a week of constituent work at home, congressional lawmakers face a long list of legislative priorities.  Here is an update:

Budget Challenges

Late last night, the health care bill and the reconciliation passed the House. The next step will be for the Senate-passed health care bill to go to the President’s desk, while the reconciliation bill, which passed with 220 votes, now heads to the Senate for debate. Republicans also had a vote in to recommit the bill, but that lost 199-232.

Just a few days ago, it looked like the biggest obstacle to clear the health care reform bill would be getting the House and Senate to come to an agreement on the terms within the bill.  Oh how a single Senate seat can change that around. On Tuesday, in a surprise victory, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley to gain the open seat in the Senate, in the mostly Democratic state of Massachusetts. The open seat, once belonging to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, was crucial in determining the balance of power in the Senate.

It hasn’t been easy to get all the votes necessary to pass the Senate health bill. 60 votes were needed to ensure it’s passing and getting those votes proved difficult.
To get the legislation passed, last minute deals had to be cut to get all 60 Senators to agree on the bill.