Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act: Encyclopedia II - Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act - Legislative process

Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act - Legislative process

The passage of this bill (H.R. 1) was one of the most dramatic events in recent American history. Several times in the legislative process the bill had appeared to have failed, but each time was saved when a couple of Congressmen and Senators switched positions on the bill.

The bill was introduced early on June 25 as H.R. 1, sponsored by Speaker Dennis Hastert. All that day and the next the bill was debated, and it was apparent that the bill would be very divisive. In the early morning hours of June 27, the bill came down to a floor vote. After the initial electronic vote the count stood at 214 ayes, 218 noes. Ernest J. Istook, Jr. (R-OK-5), who was against the bill, changed his vote to "present" on hearing that C.W. Bill Young (R-FL-10), who was absent due to a death in the family, would have voted "aye" if he had been present. Next, Republicans Butch Otter (ID-1) and Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) switched their vote to "aye" under pressure from the party leadership. The bill passed by one vote, 216-215.

On June 26, the Senate leadership passed their version of the bill 76-21. When H.R. 1 reached the Senate, the amendments were made to it to confirm to the Senate agreement. A conference was held to unify the versions, and on November 21 came back to the House for approval.

At three the next morning a vote was held to concur in the conference report. After 45 minutes the bill was losing, 219-215, with David Wu (D-OR-1) not voting. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, looking for a way to pass the bill, decided to try and convince some of their dissenting members to switch back to the party line, as they had done at the previous vote. Istook, who had always been a wavering vote, consented quickly, producing a 218-216 margin. The vote dragged on for hours as the Republican leadership struggled to find the two votes it required to pass the bill. Some of the dissenters brought forth allegations that they had even been bribed to switch their votes, a charge which the Speaker readily denied.

At ten minutes before six, the leadership finally found the two votes that were needed. Otter and Trent Franks (AZ-2) switched sides. Seeing the bill was destined to pass anyways, Wu then voted yea as well. Democrats Calvin M. Dooley (CA-20), Jim Marshall (GA-3) and David Scott (GA-13) followed suit by changing their votes. Brad Miller (D-NC-13) reversed his vote from "yea" to "nay", and Republican John Culberson (TX-7) followed suit. After all the vote changes, the bill passed 220-215.

The Democrats cried foul, prompting Bill Thomas, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means committee, to challenge the result. Thomas, as expected, had no real reason to actually do so, and was merely satisfying the minority. He voted to table his own challenge in a 210 ayes, 193 noes, vote.

The Senate's consideration of the conference report was somewhat less heated, as cloture on it was invoked by a vote of 70-29 [1]. However, a budget point of order raised by Tom Daschle, and voted on. As 60 votes were necessary to override it, the challenge was actually considered to have a credible chance of passing.

For several minutes, the vote total was stuck at 58-39, until Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Trent Lott (R-MS), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) voted in quick succession in favour to pass the vote 61-39[2]. The bill itself was finally passed 54-44 [3] on November 25, 2003, and was signed into law by the President on December 8.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Legislative process", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki