filibuster

'twas the night before christmas and all through the senate...

by: los anjalis

Thu Dec 24, 2009 at 17:50:43 PM PST

The US Senate convened today -- the day before Christmas -- and passed the Senate's version of the famed health insurance reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This bill will move into conference committee with the House of Representatives' version of the bill in January, before finall passage (Previous discussion of this week's Senate events here). It is not a common occurrence to meet the day before Christmas. The last time the Senate held a roll call on Christmas Eve was in the year 1895, when Senators lifted a ban on government officers who had joined the Confederacy from serving in the post-Civil War military. Below are other interesting facts about the Senate.

Today (Christmas Eve) marked the 25th straight day of debate. This is just short of the record for the longest number of consecutive days that the Senate was in session, in the winter of 1917 (thanks to @wonkroom on Twitter for this fact). The extended debate in 1917 was due to anti-war legislators stalling debate about whether or not to arm US merchant ships during World War I ... (more below)

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a bizarre process & a historic vote: healthcare reform

by: los anjalis

Mon Dec 21, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PST

Although it was highly anticlimactic, awfully frustrating for Americans, and just the beginning, the early hour of this morning marked a historic vote for health care reform.

So what exactly happened? Well, the US Senate voted 60-40 NOT in favor of PASSING the bill -- but in favor of ending debate and stopping further filibustering on a specific set of amendments put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Yes, they voted for "cloture" -- to end debate on the bill. Were the debate to continue, Republicans (or Sen Lieberman or Nelson) would have more and more chances at filibustering the bill (a process by which they are allowed to read every page of the phone book aloud or do other things a 2nd grader wouldn't even do, in order to stall the process of moving a bill forward)...

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What is health justice? How are health & human rights fiercely connected to the wellness of our neighborhoods? How do we reframe policy debates? How do we continue dreaming and building instead of just reacting & surviving? And how do we support each other in our healing?

Cure This is an online space for storytelling, discussion, & radical transformation. Create an account to write a diary or comment. Questions or thoughts: lotusfeet [at] hotmail [dot] com

News: CureThis was part of an exhibit in Chicago: "Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009" [link]

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