Senate healthcare bill: What happens next

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After Senate Democratic leaders have finished negotiations and nailed down 60 votes, they will begin the process spelled out in Senate rules for ending the expected Republican filibusters and moving to a final vote on the healthcare legislation.

Here is the expected sequence of events, which is likely to stretch into all or most of next week, possibly culminating in a Senate session on Christmas Day.

Step 1: The Manager’s Amendment

This is a package of changes to the existing Senate healthcare bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada will move to insert these changes into the bill. Republicans would begin their first filibuster at this point, but Democrats will move to block it by petitioning for cloture, which sets a limit on debate.

A one-day waiting period is required before a cloture vote can be taken. If the motion wins the necessary 60 votes, debate will be limited to 30 hours. (The Senate normally permits unlimited debate — unlike the House, which sets strict limits on debate and does not permit filibusters.)

Step 2: The Substitute Amendment

Because the healthcare package involves spending and taxes, and the Constitution requires that revenue bills originate in the House, Reid will take an unrelated revenue bill that has already been approved and sent to the Senate, strip it of its contents and insert the Senate’s healthcare language, effectively turning it into the Senate healthcare bill.

To forestall another filibuster attempt, Democrats again will move to limit debate to the prescribed 30 hours.

Step 3: Consideration of the final bill

A final GOP filibuster attempt could come here, prompting another cloture procedure.

After that, a simple majority of the Senate — 51 votes — would be required to pass the bill.

Final step

The whole filibuster-cloture process is likely to be repeated over the final-final version of the bill reconciling differences between House and Senate versions — a process expected to run into next year.

Source: Kim Geiger