House Now Voting On Upton
Passes 261-157 (39 Dems Vote Yes, 4 Republicans Vot No)
GOP Plays Hardball Smart Hardball In The House

Summation of today's vote:

PPACA took health plans away on a 219-212 vote. The Keep Your Health Plan Act to bring them back passes 261-157.

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 15, 2013

Original Post:

Before the House could vote on Upton's bill they had to pass a rule that covered the terms of the debate. In this case it's no amendments. The Democrats are offering a "motion to recommit" the rule to include their preferred version of the cancellation "fix". This is a political move to give them cover to vote against Upton, while getting on record as voting for something that would "fix" the cancellations.

This is where the House GOP leadership did something smart.

Upton objected to the motion saying it wasn't "germane" to the underlying bill. The Chair sustained the objection. Then the Democratic sponsor of the motion moved to appeal the decision of the chair. Upton then moved to table the appeal. The House will table the motion and vote on the rule for Upton and then on Upton.

Now this is all very inside baseball but it has a big political impact...the only bill that will be voted on now is Upton's. There will be no Democratic substitute/show vote. Any Democrat who wants to be able to say they voted to do something about the cancellations will have to buck the party and vote for Upton.

Or

They could try to say they showed their opposition to policy cancellations by....voting against the motion to table the motion to appeal the rule of the chair that the motion to recommit was not germane.

Yeah.

FWIW- The motion to recommit probably was out of order by the rules and not just sheer political force. The sponsor said his alternative deserved a vote regardless of "technicalities". That's what you say when you are trying to break the rules.

BTW- Pelosi is desperate to keep Democrat defections to Upton down.

Credit where it's due: Boehner, Cantor, et al have played this very well.

Unfortunately, the Democrats got a second bite of the apple and came up with a motion to reconsider that made the germaneness requirement so they got their show vote.

Final vote total in few minutes.

posted by DrewM. at 01:31 PM

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