Procedural Vote on Senate Health Care Overhaul Set for Saturday

On Thursday, Senate Democrats announced that a vote on a procedural motion to begin debate on the chamber's newly released health reform bill will take place at 8 p.m. on Saturday, The Hill reports (Bolton, The Hill, 11/19).

CongressDaily reports that as soon as the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture have been cast, the chamber automatically would adopt the motion to proceed to the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would immediately call up his reform bill as a substitute amendment to a House "shell bill" that will serve as the vehicle for the reform bill's language (Edney/Friedman, CongressDaily, 11/20).

According to The Hill, the decision to "dispense with time-consuming procedural hurdles" means that senators would be able to adjourn for the Thanksgiving recess after Saturday's vote and begin work on the bill's amendments upon returning (The Hill, 11/19).

Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday said the release of the bill had given them the political momentum to move forward on the first test vote (Pear, New York Times, 11/20).

However, Reid declined to say whether he had gathered the required 60 votes. "We'll find out when the votes are taken," he said (Hunter [1], CQ Today, 11/19).