In a string of votes known as a “vote-a-rama” that began around 11 p.m. on Saturday and will go until noon on Sunday, Senate Democrats are rejecting changes to their climate, tax, and health package, The Hill reports.
The Senate is still in session as they discuss amendment after amendment, with both Democratic and Republican senators interacting on the floor.
The majority of the Republican amendments are designed to force Democrats to make difficult decisions. If any were granted, it could be harder for the whole package to be passed by the House at the end of the week.
The procedure was previously projected to take up to 12 to 14 hours, while some hopeful onlookers questioned whether it may end sooner if MPs became fatigued from working through the night.
Despite the demanding effort, senators seemed generally upbeat when the sun rose on Sunday. The overwhelming majority of them didn’t seem to be growing weary.
At 6:30 a.m., Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) amendment on crime was being discarded by the Senate. Voting was anticipated to continue for several more hours.
A key climate, tax, and health package will be passed with 51 votes thanks to a quirk of the Senate budget procedure called the “vote-a-rama”, which Democrats are utilizing to overcome a Republican filibuster.
Major legislation can be passed by the party in charge of the Senate with a simple majority vote thanks to the budget reconciliation procedure, but Democrats must consent to Republicans voting on an infinite number of back-to-back amendments as a condition of doing so.
Prior to the call for a vote, each side has just one minute to present its case for or against an amendment.
Votes on changes that don’t comply with the Byrd Rule, which stipulates that legislation approved through the budget reconciliation process has a non-tangential influence on spending, revenues, or the debt ceiling, are susceptible to procedural objections that need to be overruled by 60 votes.
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