“For the information of senators, the Senate will convene next Saturday at noon,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. “We expect to vote on the motion to move forward with the reconciliation legislation on Saturday afternoon.”
After this vote, there will be up to 20 hours of discussion. After debate time, there will be a process colloquially referred to on Capitol Hill as “vote-a-rama,” which is the marathon series of amendment votes without a time limit.
Democrats are trying to wrap up negotiations and pass their fiscal passage before leaving town for an August recess. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate in order to proceed under reconciliation rules, which would allow the legislation to be passed by a simple majority.
It’s unclear when Congresswoman Elizabeth MacDonough will announce her decision on the package. A Democratic aide told CNN that the Senate Finance Committee’s energy provisions — mainly the clean energy appropriations — are set to go before the Senate on Friday.
Schumer announced a deal with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin last week that contains a number of key goals for the party on health care costs, taxes and fighting the climate crisis. Although many details have not been disclosed, the measure would invest $369 billion in energy and climate change programs, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, according to a one-page prospectus. For the first time, Medicare would be authorized to negotiate the prices of certain drugs and cap the cost at $2,000 for those enrolled in Medicare drug plans. It would also extend expiring enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage for three years.
All 50 senators who would caucus with Democrats would have to support the vote to move forward. A key holdout was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. CNN reported earlier Thursday that Sinema is seeking to add $5 billion to help Southwest deal with a multi-year drought in the package as it considers whether to back the deal.
