On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking procedural vote to stop federal funding for abortions. The bill will now head to President Donald Trump’s desk. From The Hill:
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined all Democrats in voting against ending debate on the bill.Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who has been recovering from two back surgeries and hasn’t voted since Feb. 17, returned to the Senate to cast a vote, creating the tie that led to Pence’s vote.Leadership held the vote open for roughly an hour as they rounded up enough votes to move forward. A final vote on getting rid of the Obama-era rule could happen as early as Thursday afternoon.Republicans are using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to roll back some Obama-era regulations with only a simple majority vote.Former President Obama’s rule required that state and local governments distribute federal Title X funding for services related to contraception, fertility, pregnancy care and cervical cancer screenings to health providers, regardless of whether they also preform abortions.Democrats blasted Republicans for using Pence to break a tie on a procedural vote.As Republicans waited for Isakson to arrive, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office sent a note to reporters with the subject line: “What’s going on with this Senate vote? The VP needs to break the tie & harm women’s health.”Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) criticized Pence’s tiebreaking vote, tweeting: “Just in case we didn’t already have enough men making decisions on women’s health.”Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)—who sat on the Senate floor and waited for Pence to arrive—pledged that Democrats would spend Thursday afternoon speaking out against the GOP-effort.
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