How many times does HCR need to be voted on?

[Hawaii Hiker]

A couple polls are suggesting that Brown has inched within striking distance of Coakley in the MA. senate race next Tues....BTW, a Boston Globe poll out today has her up by 15%, i can't see that kook Brown winning in a state as blue as Massachussets...

But some are saying if he does win it would defeat HCR...Didn't HCR pass on Xmas Eve?....How many times does this damn bill need voted on...I know they need to merge the House & Senate bills together, but do they need 60 votes for everything....Isn't anything 50 votes plus Biden (President of the Senate) anymore?...

[stray cat]

1. House and senate have to agree on a final bill - no way near passing yet

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Christmas Eve was the cloture vote...

For which they needed 60. Then they needed two more Senate votes followed by the combined effort. I'm getting confused, too. :crazy:

[Hawaii Hiker]

4. Didn't they have a vote back in Nov. to stop the debate

i thought the vote on Xmas Eve was actual passage...

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Could have that been for the House bill?

The cloture vote on Christmas was to end debate in the Senate... There were two more Senate votes necessary after that just to pass the Senate bill.

[Hawaii Hiker]

7. I recall 3 votes

The first time in committee when Senator Snowe even supported it...That was one vote....Then i thought there was a Saturday night vote in Nov? (which ended the debate)...Then the bill passed w/the vote on Xmas Eve...

i know i need an orange bang-head after all this, lol, :banghead:

[Rhiannon12866]

8. See if this helps, LOL.

I remembered that the cloture vote that ended debate in the Senate was on Christmas Eve. The troublesome two, Lieberman and Nelson, joined the majority Democrats on that one, making it 60. However, that was only the first Senate vote. They had two more before it finally passed the Senate. I've lost track of when the House bill passed, sorry, but I'm guessing that the one you refer to must have been that one... :banghead:

Senate Dems Pass Third And Final Cloture Vote On Health Care Bill – Passage Tomorrow
Wednesday, December 23, 2009

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/12/23/senate-dems-pass-third-and-final-cloture-vote-on-health-care-bill-passage-tomorrow/

[napi21]

3. I think only once more. Once a bill is agreed on between the house & Senate

it needs that final vote in both houses to end.

[Pirate Smile]

5. One House vote, Two Senate votes - Cloture (60 needed) then vote on final bill.

Of course, Both sides have to be voting on the exact same Bill.


BUT if Brown won (he wont) then the House would have to pass the exact Bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve so the Senate Bill would become law.

Coakley wins then the House and Senate can modify the Bill to make it more agreeable to the House (i.e. moving it more toward the left) then both pass it again.

[Bitwit1234]

9. If the founding fathers only knew the confusion they would cause

by setting up this system I don't they would have done it. I think they would have had the House write the bill and then the senate add admendments etc and have it voted on one time. Not all this back and forth.

[Yupster]

10. Remember the Constitution was written and voted on by the states

not the people.

The senate was set up as the voice of the states in the federal government. It gave the states veto power of the federal government's actions since senators were chosen by the state legislatures.

The Seventeenth Amendment took that power away from the states.

With both the House and the Senate elected by the people, I don't think there's really a purpose for the senate anymore.

I'd be for just getting rid of it.