Page 20 - Amendment Process News Today

Who are pretty perturbed and using -- some of them maybe using colorful language to describe whats happening there on the hill. but lets be clear. republicans as well. i remember reading guidance last week saying a lot of these are republicans were irked that they would have to linger around for another five to seven days to vote on something that thus far hasnt had the votes. >> reporter: yeah, and i just want to be clear. in talking about sort of the mood within the republican conference right...

Expert witnesses and find the best pathway forward. if it goes just like proceed and well fix everything if you get on the bill, and well they control the amendments. they can basically shut off the amendment process. they have so much -- its not the right way to do it. it has not gone through the orderly process. we said put it back in the committee. thats the vote should be taken. >> well its not just democrats that are feeling the way you are. republican the are too. republican counter part i...

>> reporter: this is the moment weve been waiting for. a vote is scheduled this afternoon on at least the motion to proceed to the senate health care bill. what does that mean? that means to start the process off. you cant even start the debate let alone the amendment process until senators get 50 votes on this vote this afternoon. now, heres the reality. aides make clear they dont believe republican senators have the votes yet. they believe theyre short of that magic number of 50. but there is ...

That has created a lot of tension and i think, brooke, were talking about sort of this bizarre situation right now where the lack of a plan from mitch mcconnell has almost worked out better for him than a plan. remember, he has tried many times to get senators behind an actual bill, an actual proposal. the repeal and replace bill version one. that didnt have new senators. a repeal and replace bill version two, that did not have enough senators and so then he moved on to the repeal only bill ask ...

Heading into. but its important to note and ive had republican aides and frankly senate majority leader mcconnell make this point repeatedly. you cant move on unless you get past this first procedural vote and brooke, dont undercount the importance of momentum. each step in this process gets them closer to the finish. each step in this process makes it chb more complicated to oppose and ill say another thing, when this process is all said and done, it will likely be at 4:00 or 5:00 in the mornin...

Crumbling down. >> i like the analogy. well come back to that in a second. phil mattingly, i dont know if you heard the analogy. this doesnt make the whole thing crumble to the ground. so, how significant is this procedural vote and does it really matter initial nos or yess, i mean, your thoughts. >> reporter: its hugely significant. i think theres no question about it. i mean, we can read between the lines right now and dean heller comes out as a yes, when rob portman comes out, these are holdo...

Not just from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, not just from the president and vice president, even from the rank and file, trying to get their members to yes. to kick this process off. how senate majority leader mcconnell wanted this to go is there would be an agreed upon amendment that all 50 senators or more agreed upon to move forward. a large-skafl amendment that would i -- scale amendment that would strip out any other version of the bill and that they could get the votes and kick t...

Indeed will get something of a win here. a much-needed win. but this health care bill and the outcome will say a lot about president trumps agenda and the republican partys agenda going forward. christine and dave? >> all right. jeff zeleny. thank you. you heard him mention the two-step process. so can the vote pass? and if it does, whats next? cnns phil mattingly has more on that from capitol hill. >> reporter: this is the moment weve been waiting for. the press, the public, the senators themse...

Prepared to cast this ballot in the affirmative. so this was a lot of work on behalf of mitch mcconnell and his republican caucus, and essentially, what he has done here is hes promised all these republican senators the opportunity here over the next couple of days to hash this thing out and come up with some sort of a plan that they can then take to conference with the house republicans and just continue this process along to get to a bill that they can all feel comfortable with, ultimately pas...

Work. that effort has failed repeatedly. so where does that leave us? at least according to senator corker, the wild west. if the procedural vote passes, that would mean a wide-open amendment process. any senator, republican or democrat, could offer any amendment they see fit to change the house-passed bill the senate is considering. as long as senate republicans are short of votes, we might not know until they walk on to the floor whether they have them. whats clear, theyre making the last push...