This afternoon at 12:30 PM, the United States Senate voted to end the debate around the government funding bill that came from the House of Representatives.
After remarks by a number of Senators from both parties — including Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Dan Coats (R-IN), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took the floor. He spoke out in favor of the Affordable Care Act and once again accused Senate Republicans of being unreasonable, saying that a small minority of them had “infected” the Senate and the democratic process.
The Senate Republicans were given a warning by several of their counterparts in the House of Representatives: if they voted in favor of cloture, it would be just as though they had supported Obamacare all along. According to The Right Scoop, the warning stated:
“Such a motion can only proceed if three-fifths of the Senate invokes cloture and allows this amendment process to begin. Simply put, the only chance that Senator Reid has to pursue this course of action is if six or more Republican Senators join the Democrats in voting to invoke cloture.
“Therefore,” the House conservatives said to every Republican senator, “it shall be our policy to regard any cloture vote that gives Senator Reid a green light to reinstate Obamacare into this CR the same as a vote for Obamacare itself.”
The final vote was 79-19 in favor of cloture. Here are the Senators who voted No:
- Vitter (R-LA)
- Paul (R-KY)
- Lee (R-UT)
- Cruz (R-TX)
- Crapo (R-ID)
- Enzi (R-WY)
- Roberts (R-KS)
- Scott (R-SC)
- Heller (R-NV)
- Grassley (R-IA)
- Toomey (R-PA)
- Moran (R-KS)
- Rubio (R-FL)
- Shelby (R-AL)
- Risch (R-ID)
- Inhofe (R-OK)
- Fischer (R-NE)
- Portman (R-OH)
- Sessions (R-AL)
The bill was then amended to remove the language about defunding Obamacare and will be sent back to the House of Representatives. The final Senate vote on the bill will only require 51 votes to pass and will be voted on later today.