WASHINGTON – The Senate began voting late Saturday on a series of amendments to a wide-ranging climate, health care and tax spending bill as Democrats raced to approve the measure and Republicans tried to slow down its passage.
It’s a rare weekend session for the Senate as Democrats push to pass their ambitious bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 before they leave Capitol Hill for their traditional August recess.
Democrats are advancing the bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act, through the budget reconciliation process, which means they have to clear a few procedural hurdles to send the bill to the House and eventually President Joe Biden’s desk.
Inflation Reduction Act details:Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Leader Schumer reach deal on energy, drug prices, taxes
What’s the budget reconciliation process?
Senate Democrats are using the budget reconciliation process to move the bill, allowing them to avoid the 60-vote threshold to overcome a Republican filibuster. The process allows the bill to pass with 50 votes, meaning all they need is a strict-party line vote with their 50-50 majority (Vice President Kamala Harris would cast a tie-breaking vote). No Republicans are expected to support the final version.
The process has one major caveat – provisions in the bill must be related to the budget in some capacity. Any bill that is on track to reconciliation must first go through the Senate Parliamentarian, who combs through the bill for any violation of what's been dubbed the Byrd Rule. It was named after Virginia Democratic Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., a fiscal hawk.
On Saturday morning, Democrats got some good news when they learned that Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough deemed that reconciliation could be applied to large parts of the bill regarding climate initiatives and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs for seniors.
" ... We are one step closer to finally taking on Big Pharma and lowering Rx drug prices for millions of Americans," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said in a statement.
Later Saturday evening, Democrats received more welcome news as Schumer's office announced that the Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 meets reconciliation instructions, allowing the bill to move forward on the Senate floor.
What led up to this?
Last week, Schumer, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., unexpectedly announced a deal on a massive spending bill that would combat climate change, reduce prescription drug prices and lower the federal deficit.
With Republicans expected to do well in the November midterm elections, the bill could present a potentially huge victory for Biden and congressional Democrats after they had lost faith in Manchin for shooting down the president's much more ambitious Build Back Better plan last year.
What happens first and when?
On Saturday evening, the Senate agreed by a party-line vote of 50-50 with Harris breaking the tie start what could have been up to 20 hours of debate, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. But leaders of both parties opted to move straight to votes on amendments after only a few hours of debate.
The bill will "lower costs for American families. It's gonna address some of the basic needs families have been having for generations in terms of daily costs of life that are too expensive that are going to be lowered because of this work," Harris told reporters after casting the tie-breaking vote.
Once debate ended, a "vote-a-rama" on amendments to the bill began.
What’s a vote-a-rama?
In a vote-a-rama, senators can offer up an unlimited amount of amendments to a bill but the process is expedited.
There is only one minute allocated for debate, equally divided between both sides. Then, senators are given 10 minutes to vote. This process repeats for every single amendment.
The first amendment was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., shortly after 11:30 p.m. His proposal would have sped up Medicare's ability to negotiate lower pharmaceutical costs and expanded the list of drugs on which they could impose price caps. It failed 99-1.
The Senate last held a vote-a-rama a year ago when it adopted a budget resolution for fiscal year 2022. In that instance, senators offered up 43 amendments for a vote, leading to a session that lasted around 14 hours.
Saturday night's vote-a-rama is expected to continue at least until sometime Sunday morning. Timing of final passage on the bill remains unknown.
What’s the point of it?
Most amendments are expected to come from Republicans, who are furious over the deal which was negotiated without their input.
Republican-proposed amendments are expected to fail. But the vote-a-rama will allow Republicans to make Democrats vote on tough issues that could be used for ads on the campaign trail this falll.
The deal also incited the anger of some on the left, who have criticized the bill's investment in new fossil fuel development – likely due to the importance natural gas and coal are to the economy of Manchin's home state.
Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the Senate floor Wednesday, urged lawmakers "to do everything possible to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry," and promised to offer an amendment nixing fossil fuel investments in the bill.
Sanders' amendment is expected to fail as the bill is contingent on Manchin's support.
Once all proposed amendments are voted on and senators agree on the final language of the bill, then it will head to a final vote. Assuming Schumer keeps all his Democratic colleagues in line, the bill is expected pass in a party-line vote of 50-50, with Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
“Look, (Republicans are) going to do lots of amendments, we don't know what else they will do but as I said, I believe we will have 50 votes to pass this legislation at the end of the day,” Schumer said during a Friday press conference.
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