Update: Another Senate cloture vote required?!?! House to delay UE vote until AFTER Healthcare?!?! Cloture passes Senate 85-2:next the ‘final’ Senate vote in 30 hours
Update 11/3: New UE thread here
Update: 11/3: OMG, ANOTHER cloture vote required BEFORE the final Senate vote?? WTH? THEN to the House? Could HARRY REID BE ANY MORE INCOMPETENT IF HE TRIED??? And now it will have to compete in the House against their dopey Healthcare bill!??! Oh Gawd help us.
They AMENDED the bill which means there must be a THIRD Cloture vote..
Last night, the Senate voted by an 85-2 margin for cloture on H.R. 3548. Most reporters (myself included) thought that motion limited debate for good, ensuring that a final vote on the bill could be held as early as tomorrow morning. But Republicans, who are bent on thwarting the measure, still have more one arrow in their quiver, according to Congress Daily’s Peter Cohn (subscription required):
Monday’s vote cut off debate on the substitute amendment from Majority Leader Reid and Finance Chairman Max Baucus adding the tax breaks to the underlying unemployment insurance bill. Another cloture vote, this time on the amended bill, could occur as late as 11:40 tonight unless Republicans yield back time or agree to vitiate cloture. Even if cloture is invoked, Republicans would have up to another 30 hours to debate, pushing final passage off until Thursday.
What’s worse, the House was ready to vote on the more generous Senate version as soon passed. But the delay means that the unemployment bill must now compete for floor space with health care legislation. It’s not yet clear when they will squeeze it in.
Update: It passes the second cloture vote in the Senate. Yay! Now after 30 hours they can hold the ‘final’ Senate vote, THEN it will go to House, who only has 1 vote, then it goes for Obama to sign.
ProgressIllinois update: Adam Doster on November 02, 2009 – 4:41pm
Moments ago, the Senate voted by an overwhelming majority for cloture on H.R. 3548, a federal unemployment benefit extension. While 85 lawmakers supported the procedural motion, only two Republicans — Missouri Sen. Kit Bond and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint — voted against it. (The latter, who Rep. Peter Roskam has called “grounded” and “wise,” represents a state with an unemployment rate of 11.6 percent)….
Moderate in the Middle 