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I am wondering how they could hold the vote open for 2 hours and 50 minutes until they got enough Republicans to change their vote?

It was supposed to be a 15 minute vote with 2 extra minutes.

The vote was- yea 216/nay 218 for almost 3 hours.

I am wondering how they could hold the vote open for 2 hours and 50 minutes until they got enough Republicans to change their vote?

Congressional rules are meant to be waived.

I am wondering how they could hold the vote open for 2 hours and 50 minutes until they got enough Republicans to change their vote?

Unfortunately that is done all the time by whichever party controls the House.

I went to bed a little after midnight (PST) when the vote was 194 Yes to 207 No. At that point none of the Democrats had voted for it, and about 25 Republicans had voted against it. It was hard to see how the Republican leadership would be able to overcome that margin. But they not only twisted some Republican arms, they also bought off some Democrats.

Hopefully enough Democratic Senators will filibuster this monstrosity in the Senate. I'm becoming very fearful of what will happen after 2004 if Republicans increase their margins in both houses of Congress.

Nowadays it seems one has to cheer on the Democrats, since political gridlock offers the only hope of preventing massive new Federal spending programs from being enacted into law.