A massive, earth-shattering victory for Republicans today:
Senate Republicans have identified two minor violations of reconciliation rules in the final piece of the health-care package. The violations will force the Senate to change the reconciliation bill and ship it to the House of Representatives for final passage.
….Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said one of the deleted provisions was a technical item that he considered “as close to a ‘nothing’ as you can come around here.” The second, more substantive provision would have set a formula for establishing maximum Pell Grant awards. But Conrad said the formula would not have taken effect for two years, giving Congress time to restore it in another bill.
[Senate parliamentarian Alan] Frumin deemed both measures to be out of order because they had no budget implications, Conrad said Thursday. The senator said no other Republican challenges to the legislation were still pending before Frumin, raising Democratic hopes that the Senate would take a final vote within hours.
Well, that’s what passes for a massive, earth-shattering victory among the Republican base these days, anyway. I’m sure the GOP is proud of its role in delaying passage of the reconciliation rider for another 24 hours or so.
