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US Senate passes health care reconciliation bill, sends to House for final vote

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 56 to 43 to pass a modified version of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 Thursday, after certain language in the original bill was altered to fix parliamentary problems highlighted by Republicans. The bill will now be sent back to the US House of Representatives for a final vote on the new language. Democratic leaders stated that the alterations, which involved student-lending legislation attached to health care bill, were minimal and should easily pass through the lower chamber. All Senate Republicans and three Democrats voted against the bill, but it still passed because budget reconciliation bills require only a simple majority, rather than the standard 60-member super-majority, to advance. The House vote is slated for Thursday evening. US President Barack Obama signed the original bill into law on Tuesday after it was passed by the House by a vote of 219 - 212. He has since signed an executive order continuing a prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape or incest or where a woman's life would be endangered, as part of a compromise with conservative Democrats. The same day that the original bill was signed into law, the attorneys general (AGs) for 13 states filed suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the new law. Last week, Idaho Governor CL Otter signed into law a bill banning a federal mandate that citizens purchase health insurance. Earlier in March, the Virginia legislature passed a similar bill that Governor Bob McDonald has indicated he will sign. The AGs who filed suit Tuesday originally threatened the action in December, after the Senate passed its version of the health care overhaul bill.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).