I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Pro Publica has a very helpful side by side of the original version of the Senate health care reform and what will be added or subtracted in the Senate’s reconciliation bill. The reconciliation bill will be the final health care reform bill that — if it passes — would go to President Barack Obama’s desk.
“We’re reading this now and we’ll be marking it up with our analysis as we go,” the Pro Publica piece by Olga Pierce and Jeff Larson read. “And by ‘We’ we mean you too — e-mail us if you find anything interesting or use #pphcr in your tweets.”
The House is expected to vote on the Senate reconciliation bill — while at the same time affirming that the House passes the Senate version of health care reform in a procedural method called “deem and pass.”
The House Rules Committee is in charge of writing rules for floor debate. The rule dictates what amendments can be offered to a given bill and how long it will be debated, for example. A self-executing rule is essentially a two-for-one special; when the House votes to adopt a self-executing rule, it simultaneously adopts a separate bill or amendment, which is specified in the rule itself. The House “deems” another bill to be passed as it adopts the rule.
While self-executing rules are not uncommon, it has not been used for a piece of legislation this large (though, admittedly, this is one of the more significant bills that Congress would ever pass).
The House is expected to vote on the legislation on Sunday. So far, there are 26 Democrats undecided on their vote, including Harry Teague from New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. Supporters of the bill need 14 of the undecided votes to support the bill to get to the 216 needed for passage.
