The 54-to-44 vote for final passage followed a more critical moment when
the Senate, in a bipartisan rebuke to Republican hard-liners, cut off
debate on the legislation. The 79-to-19 vote included the top Republican
leadership and easily exceeded the 60-vote threshold to break a
filibuster.
The Senate then voted along party lines, 54 to 44, to strip out House
Republican language that tied further funding of the government to
defunding the health care law. That vote required only a simple 51-vote
majority.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, called the
votes “the first step toward wresting control from the extremists.”
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, had been urging his Senate
colleagues all week to oppose ending debate as a way to force Democrats
to accept language defunding the Affordable Care Act. But with the clock
ticking toward an Oct. 1 government shutdown, an overwhelming
bipartisan majority wanted to act quickly to move the spending bill back
to the House.
Now Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio faces a defining choice: accept the
Senate bill, which funds the government through Nov. 15 without
Republican policy prescriptions, or listen to his conservatives, who
will accept a government shutdown unless serious damage is done to the
health care law.
House Republicans will meet at noon Saturday to hash out their options.
Mr. Boehner has signaled that he will again attach language to chip away
at the Affordable Care Act, but as the deadline approaches, fissures
are appearing in the Republican ranks.
“The only time you shut down the government is when you shut it down and
refuse to open it until you accomplish what you want. We’ll fold like
hotcakes,” said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma. “You do not
take a hostage you are not going to for sure shoot, and we will not for
sure shoot this hostage.”
The Senate legislation would almost certainly win approval in the House,
largely with Democratic votes, but conservatives warned it could hurt
the beleaguered speaker dearly.
“I think it would be devastating to the speaker’s support,” said
Representative Richard Hudson, Republican of North Carolina, who is one
of the members urging the Republican leadership to drive a hard bargain
with the Senate.
“I think the question is do we go with the carrot or the stick
strategy,” Mr. Hudson added. “Do we try to do something bad enough to
force Harry Reid to negotiate with us, or do we do something that we
think he can’t refuse?”
Republicans were also considering a simple bill to keep the government
open for as little as seven days while the legislative jousting
continues. That was sternly opposed by senior Republicans, like
Representative Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee.
“If you can’t get the House and Senate together by midnight Sept. 30, it
becomes a more viable strategy,” said Representative Pat Tiberi,
Republican of Ohio and a close ally of Mr. Boehner.
Barring any unforeseen twists, which can never be ruled out on Capitol Hill, the Senate will send a budget bill to the House that Republicans there have vowed to change because of their strong opposition to any measure that helps the administration put the health care law into effect.
That will set up a game of legislative Ping-Pong that will tip the
government perilously close to shutting down on Tuesday.
Mr. Reid has said he would reject anything but a plain budget bill.
Another idea under consideration, according to a Republican who had
spoken to the leadership, would be to put an amendment in the Senate
budget bill that would eliminate health insurance subsidies for members
of Congress and many of their aides, who must purchase their insurance
on the exchanges that are part of the new law.
“That is an arrow in the quiver,” the Republican said.