Sunday, March 21, 2010

The House approves the Senate HCR bill

They did it! TPM:
By a razor thin margin of 219-212, the House of Representatives tonight passed far-reaching legislation that will lead to near-universal health care coverage in the United States -- a goal that has eluded Presidents and Congresses for a century.

The vote concluded at 10:48 p.m., almost 10 hours after Democrats gavelled the chamber into session, confident the vote would be there. The bulk of reform will now be enrolled and signed into law, while a separate, smaller package is expected to go to the Senate, where Democrats are expected to muster the 51 votes needed to pass it. [....]
The health care reform bill, in the version passed by the Senate in December 2009, has now been passed by Congress, and will become law when signed by the President. That's done.

The House is now moving toward a vote on the reconciliation measure that will complete the health care reform package. At this moment, Rep. Bart Stupak, no less, is speaking against Republican efforts to sabotage it by re-introducing his own previous anti-abortion amendment.

--Jeff Weintraub