Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio
WASHINGTON POST
The Senate voted along party lines Friday to approve a short-term spending bill that restores funding for the new federal health-care law and sends it back to the House, where its fate remains uncertain.
Final passage came at the end of a series of four votes that had senators end debate on the bill, approve a procedural change regarding spending, add an amendment that restored funding for the health-care law and then decide on final passage. The vote to end debate — formally known as cloture — and the final passage vote were seen as most critical, so here’s our look at what happened:
ON THE CLOTURE VOTE (to end formal debate on the spending bill):
Final tally: 79 to 19.
How many Democrats voted yes?: 54.
How many Republicans voted yes?: 23.
How many Republicans voted no?: 19.
How many Democrats voted no?: 0.
How many senators didn’t vote?: 2
.
Which Republicans voted no?: Sens. Mike Crapo (Idaho), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Charles Grassley (Iowa), Dean Heller (Nev.), James Inhofe (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rob Portman (Ohio), James Risch (Idaho), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), David Vitter (La.).
Which senators didn’t vote?: Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) (who is attending his son’s wedding in Arizona) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).
Votes Notes: Seen through the lens of raw politics, this vote is a new way to measure the ideological and tactical divide among the chamber’s 46 Senate Republicans.
For GOP senators, the cloture vote was less about proceeding to final passage of the bill and more about which camp they chose to join. There’s the camp led by Cruz and Lee that sought to use all procedural means necessary to defund the health-care law, or at least slow consideration of the Senate spending bill. This group also is working closely with conservative House Republicans on what they might be able to do over the weekend to amend the bill and send it back to the Senate.
Then there’s the group led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his deputy, John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who believe it makes more sense to quickly send the spending measure back to the GOP-controlled House, where it can be amended again with changes amenable to Republican lawmakers.
Indications early Friday suggested that the Cruz-Lee camp would earn as many as 20 votes — and that would have happened if Flake had been in Washington.
As The Post’s Paul Kane noted, when you take away the five top-ranking Republican leaders, the rank and file was basically split down the middle. Put another way, Cruz basically fought Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to a draw on this issue.
There was no policy at stake in this vote. It was procedural. And as some Republicans privately argue, had there been actual policy at stake, Cruz would probably have received far less support. But policy is not where his wing of the party’s power is centered. (Just ask yourself what bills DeMint was ever responsible for passing as a senator.) It’s politics where their weight is felt. This vote reinforced that muscle.
All three of the GOP senators most often mentioned as potential 2016 candidates voted “no.” In addition to Cruz, Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) each voted against cloture. That’s a pretty hefty cross-section of the potential 2016 field right there.
ON FINAL PASSAGE OF THE SPENDING BILL:
Vote tally: 54 to 44.
How many Democrats voted yes?: 54.
How many Republicans voted yes?: 0.
How many Democrats voted no?: 0.
How many Republicans voted no?: 44.