Senate Prepares To Vote on Bill To Repeal Federal Health Care Reform Law
Building on momentum from a Florida court ruling earlier this week declaring the federal health reform law unconstitutional, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday proposed a measure that would repeal the overhaul, the Washington Post's "44" reports (Sonmez, "44," Washington Post, 2/1).
According to Politico, McConnell attached the House-approved repeal bill (HR 2) as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration funding bill (Haberkorn/Toeplitz, Politico, 2/1).
Previous Action on Bill
Last week, the House voted 245-189 to approve legislation to repeal the federal health reform law. The vote was widely considered to be symbolic as the repeal bill had little chance of being considered in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
President Obama also has promised to veto the bill if it reaches his desk (California Healthline, 1/20).
What Lies Ahead in Senate
However, it appears as if the legislation will go to a vote in the Senate. According to Senate Democrats, a vote on the measure could occur as early as Wednesday. "The Republicans obviously want to do something on health care, and so we want to get this out of their system very quickly," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Although the amendment has "broad support" from Senate Republicans, it is unlikely to receive enough votes to pass the Senate, the Post's "44" reports. On Monday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) announced that his separate repeal bill had earned the support of all 47 Senate Republicans ("44," Washington Post, 2/1).
Senate Democrats have vowed that any GOP repeal will be defeated, and party leaders remain confident that few, if any, Senate Democrats will vote for the GOP repeal measure.
Senate Democrats plan to raise a budget-point-of-order against the measure, a move intended to allow the party to highlight a Congressional Budget Office report that found repealing the reform law would add $230 billion to the federal deficit, Politico reports. The point-of-order requires 60 votes to overcome (Politico, 2/1).
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