Congressman Elijah E. Cummings commented on the passage of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The bill passed the House on Saturday night by a final tally of 220-215.
Cummings said he was pleased to vote for passage of this historic bill and to have 219 colleagues joining him in helping provide the opportunity for 96 percent of Americans to get quality, affordable healthcare. However, Cummings also said the next step is critical: moving the bill proposed in the United States Senate to a majority-rules, up-or-down vote on the floor of that body.
Congressman Cummings believes that the filibuster in the Senate is a simple case of obstruction, similar to that faced by other filibustered legislation, such as the 1957 and 1964 Civil Rights Acts. The only way to end this obstruction is to vote for cloture. Cloture closes debate on the Senate floor. It is usually invoked after all Senators who wish to debate the bill have spoken.
“We’re going to do everything we can do to press very, very hard on the Senate to do whatever they have to do to bring cloture and then vote up or down,” said Cummings, “The American people deserve that.
There are too many people in our country who are suffering and we can do better. They can get it done. They need to sit down, talk to each other, work this thing out, so we can get into conference and see if we can come up with a decent piece of legislation to send to the President.
The American people play a major role in this. They need to get on the phone and call their Senators and say, ‘We want an up or down vote on this legislation, so that we can have healthcare in our country.’”
