Senate Passes Health Care Bill In Christmas Eve Vote

Capitol Hill experienced something on Christmas Eve morning not seen in over 100 years as the Senate undertook a rare December 24 vote to pass long delayed health care legislation and send the historic bill to the House. The final roll call vote was 60-39 in favor of a reform package championed by President Obama and only assured of success after herculean efforts by Majority Leader Harry Reid to corral moderate support for a bill.

The Senate convened early on Thursday morning for last-minute formalities before the vote took place. The actual vote was more of a victory lap for Democrats who have struggled throughout much of the year in the face of public skepticism and harsh Republican attacks to put together a bill able to secure 60 votes and turn back GOP efforts to filibuster any legislation.

 Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama’s legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the country’s history.

The 60-39 vote on a cold winter morning capped months of arduous negotiations and 24 days of floor debate. It also followed a succession of failures by past congresses to get to this point. Vice President Joe Biden presided as 58 Democrats and two independents voted “yes.” Republicans unanimously voted “no.”

Reid  acknowledged the historic nature of Thursday’s events and the “enormous undertaking” that is reform, but also admitted that “this morning isn’t the end of the process, it’s merely the beginning.”

“This morning isn’t the end of the process, it’s merely the beginning. We’ll continue to build on this success to improve our health system even more,” Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said before the vote. “But that process cannot begin unless we start today … there may not be a next time.”

At a news conference a few moments later, Reid said the vote “brings us one step closer to making Ted Kennedy’s dream a reality.”

The Nevadan said that “every step of this long process has been an enormous undertaking.”

Senate Republicans lobbed parting shots at the legislation and vowed to continue working towards its defeat when the legislation comes back out of the House. Many Democrats chose to honor the legacy of the late Ted Kennedy, long closely linked with the decades-long fight for health care reform in Washington. Vicki Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy’s widow, watched Thursday’s vote from the public gallery in the Senate chamber.

While more intense work remains in conference negotiations to reconcile the Senate language with a more liberal House bill and threats to the fragile 60-vote coalition cobbled together by Reid could still derail ultimate passage, Democrats were content on Thursday to revel in a hard fought victory that marks President Obama’s first major legislative accomplishment as well as the most progress made on health care reform in American history.

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