HR 3273 and HJ Res 89 Passed in House

As I suggested in my earlier post, the House Rules Committee published a rule for the consideration of HR 3273, HJ Res 80, and HJ Res 90 that called for a limited debate with no amendments. Also as expected, the House took up HR 3273 and HJ Res 90 and passed both pieces of legislation; HR 3273 by a party-line vote and HJ Res 90 by a unanimous vote.

It is obvious that the leadership expected this type of a vote. As part of the rule for the consideration of these bills, they put in an interesting parliamentary maneuver. Once HR 3273 and HJ Res 90 were passed a provision of H. Res. 373 {§3}, the rule for these bills, kicked in and directed the Clerk of the House to include HR 3273 as a part of the language of HJ Res 90 when it was prepared for transmission to the Senate.

The idea behind this maneuver is that the Senate could not afford to ignore HJ Res 90 without angering too many people; paying the Federal employees that are currently working through the fiscal fiasco is just the right thing to do. Of course there is nothing to stop the Senate leadership from doing to HJ Res 90 what they did to HJ Res 59, strip out the language that offends them, pass it and ship it back to the House.