cross-posted from: https://kbin.melroy.org/m/usa@midwest.social/t/1306792
Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Moves to Vote as Democratic Defectors Relent on Shutdown
(schumer wasn’t the defector this time)
what we got:
a provision that would call federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown back to their jobs. It also would provide funds to ensure that federal workers who were furloughed during the shutdown can receive retroactive pay [(the latter as required by a 2019 law defector Angus King passed)].
The short-term spending bill would additionally bar the Office of Management and Budget from implementing any additional mass layoffs of federal workers through Jan. 30.
what we did not:
healthcare
The vast majority of us have nothing to do with it. It’s dumb senate rulemaking that has metastisized over the last 250 years. It does only take a simple majority to pass legislation in the Senate, but it takes 60% to end debate on a bill (this is called “cloture”). In the past, Senators would take advantage of this by simply talking incessantly until a cloture vote was called just to get them to shut up so the Senate can move on with business (a maneuver called the filibuster). At some point, the Senate decided to streamline things by allowing Senators to simply signal their intent to filibuster, so that they can just not call a vote for that bill and move on to other business. And now, since it takes literally zero effort to filibuster a bill, almost every bill gets filibustered, giving us the de facto 60 vote requirement.
Seriously, this country needs an enema, and the Senate is where you’d stick the hose.