Early Thursday morning, Senators voted 51-48 to adopt the FY2017 budget resolution, with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) casting the only Republican vote against it. With just 51 votes, the Senate moves forward with plans to repeal the ACA while avoiding a filibuster from Senate Democrats. Ultimately, the Senate considered 19 amendments before the final vote — and stymied each one, mostly through procedural votes.
The key amendment of the vote-a-rama was an amendment offered by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who was joined by other moderate GOP Senators, would delay an initial deadline to write legislation to repeal the 2010 health care law,. The amendment was ultimately withdrawn without a vote.
The Corker Amendment would have pushed back the Jan. 27 deadline for four House and Senate committees to write legislation to repeal the health care law, the sole purpose of the budget resolution under consideration. A vote on the amendment would have been a key indicator of where Senators stood on a growing debate among Republicans about how quickly Congress should repeal the law, especially without a clear replacement ready to go.
The FY 2017 budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions with the purpose of repealing the health care law, which would occur through separate legislation.