| San Francisco Chronicle | - |
Sept.
25 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate is poised to vote today on advancing a
stopgap spending measure after Republican Ted Cruz, defying his own
party, spoke for more than 21 hours, raising the risk of a government
shutdown.
Senate Vote Set on Spending Bill After Cruz Ends 21-Hour Speech
Roxana Tiron and Kathleen Hunter, ©2013 Bloomberg News
Published 5:51 pm, Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Comments (
Printable Version
Email This
Font
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate is poised to vote today on advancing a stopgap spending measure after Republican Ted Cruz, defying his own party, spoke for more than 21 hours, raising the risk of a government shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said yesterday he would support a quick vote on the Senate spending measure to then give House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, time to craft an alternative bill that would include proposals to undo parts of President Barack Obama’s health-care law.
Cruz,
a Texan who wants to thwart the health law, vowed to use all of the
time available under Senate rules to speak and hold up action on the
Senate bill. That would leave Congress little room to pass a final
measure to keep the government open after funding authority ends on
Sept. 30.
“Obamacare isn’t working,” Cruz said on
the Senate floor. “Yet fundamentally there are politicians in this body
who are not listening to the people. They’re not listening to the
concerns of their constituents.”
Under the
chamber’s rules, Cruz was interrupted at noon, when the Senate adjourned
and reconvened to start a new legislative day. The Senate will take a
procedural vote at 1 p.m. to advance the bill.
21st Hour
As Cruz approached his 21st hour, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
informed him that he could still speak after the new legislative day
began, and asked whether he’d be willing to yield time to another
senator. In response, Cruz maintained that he would have to stop
speaking at noon.
“We could finish this bill in a
matter of hours, but instead we find ourselves pushed closer and closer
to a government shutdown,” Reid said today. He said he was glad to see
some Republicans “stand up for common sense” and oppose Cruz’s effort.
In
addition to railing against the health-care law, Cruz killed time
reading from Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” and referencing the
reality TV show “Duck Dynasty.”
Congress hasn’t
passed a budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The
Senate today is scheduled to take a test vote on the House spending
plan, which also would end discretionary and mandatory spending on the
health-care law. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said yesterday that the Senate
will pass a spending measure without defunding the health-care law.
The
Senate needs 60 votes today to advance the House spending measure. That
will allow up to 30 additional hours of debate, after which Reid can
set another vote to end debate on the bill.
Borrowing Authority
Senate
rules require another day before that vote could occur, unless there’s
an agreement to move it up. That means the vote to end debate would
occur Sept. 28, with a vote on passage on Sept. 29 at the latest. That
would give the House just one full workday to act before spending
authority expires.
On another fiscal front, the
House today could introduce legislation to increase the government’s
authority to borrow and pay bills. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew
told Congress today that the extraordinary measures being used to avoid
breaching the debt ceiling “will be exhausted no later than Oct. 17.”
House Republicans will include a one-year delay of the health-care law as part of its legislation on the borrowing authority.
Cruz,
who said he’s willing to use a filibuster to block Senate efforts to
remove the defunding language from the government spending bill, took to
the floor at 2:41 p.m. yesterday in Washington.
“I intend to speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand,” Cruz said.
Rubio, Lee
As he continued talking into the night, he was joined at times on the floor by other senators, including Republicans Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah.
The
Democratic proposal backed by Reid would fund the government through
Nov. 15, a month shorter than the measure the House passed last year,
which covered spending through Dec. 15.
The End of the "Made-In-China" Era
The 21st century industrial revolution has already begun. All because of an incredible invention that’s made in America.
Business Insider calls it "the next trillion dollar industry." The Economist compares its impact to the steam engine and the printing press. And technology experts -- like the guys who brought you the BMW 3-series, the F-35 fighter jet, and Amazon.com -- think it could be "bigger than the internet."
A new investment video reveals the impossible (but real) technology that could make you impossibly rich. Watch it now, before the skeptics on Wall Street wise up and start looking for their piece of the action. Just enter your email:
The 21st century industrial revolution has already begun. All because of an incredible invention that’s made in America.
Business Insider calls it "the next trillion dollar industry." The Economist compares its impact to the steam engine and the printing press. And technology experts -- like the guys who brought you the BMW 3-series, the F-35 fighter jet, and Amazon.com -- think it could be "bigger than the internet."
A new investment video reveals the impossible (but real) technology that could make you impossibly rich. Watch it now, before the skeptics on Wall Street wise up and start looking for their piece of the action. Just enter your email:
Terms and conditions
Sponsored by The Motley Fool
Sponsored by The Motley Fool
end quote from:
No comments:
Post a Comment