The House passed its 2015-17 budget plan yesterday. As the Associated Press reports, it was a party-line vote with the funding yet to be determined.
The House budget passed on a 51-47 party-line vote after only slight changes to the original proposal written by the chamber’s Democratic leadership. The House hasn’t yet voted on other bills that will pay for the plan, including one that creates a capital gains tax.
Meanwhile, the Senate struggled through a long night, lots of amendments and a rule change, but ultimately left the final vote for after the weekend. Again, the votes followed predictable partisan lines. From the AP story:
The Senate worked into the early morning hours Friday debating dozens of amendments to a Republican-crafted budget bill, but a final vote on the plan won’t happen until after the weekend, at the earliest.
After more than nine hours of debate, Senate Republicans were blocked from moving forward immediately because minority Democrats wouldn’t allow them to bypass a procedural rule that requires additional time before a bill can be voted on.
Regardless of when the vote is taken, the lines have been clearly drawn between the chambers and the parties. The nature of the resolution, however, is much less clear.
