Senate votes to avert government shutdown
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The Senate will vote to move ahead with a bill to keep the government running through Nov. 15.
The U.S. Senate voted 100-0 Wednesday to clear a key procedural hurdle toward passing a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown in six days. The vote occurred after a dramatic overnight floor speech by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his allies who waged a filibuster-styled effort in opposition to President Obama’s health care law.
This afternoon’s vote cleared the way to begin debate on a House-passed stopgap spending bill that includes language to defund the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to strip that provision fom the bill and return to the House later this week a clean stopgap measure to keep the government funded through Nov. 15.
The overwhelming support for the procedural vote made clear that the votes do not exist in Congress to defund the law, but Cruz’s filibuster-style speech drew praise from colleagues and opponents of the law. Cruz held the floor for more than 21 hours, yielding only for questions from supportive Republican senators. In the end, even Cruz voted to end debate.
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