"NO" on Cloture that Facilitates Striking Defund Language
"NO" on Cloture that Facilitates Striking Defund Language
Next week, the Senate is likely to consider the House-passed year-end funding bill (H.J.Res. 59), which also permanently defunds Obamacare. According to multiple media reports, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may use a post-cloture amendment, which would allow him to alter the bill with a 51-vote threshold, thus gutting the essential defunding language secured by the House.
Before Reid can move to eliminate the defunding language, he must first secure 60 votes to invoke cloture. That vote, which is likely to come late next week, is a procedural motion that would facilitate efforts by Reid and others to strip the defunding language from H.J.Res. 59. If Reid uses this procedural trick, a vote on the motion to invoke cloture is a vote to undermine the House-passed bill.
If opponents of Obamacare unite against Reid's procedural power play by denying cloture, the language defunding Obamacare will remain intact, proving that the Senate cannot move a CR that funds Obamacare.
Heritage Action opposes procedural motions that facilitate efforts to strip the defunding language and reserves the right to include such vote(s) on the legislative scorecard.
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"NO" on Cloture that Facilitates Striking Defund Language