Six weeks ago eight Senate Democrats sent Leader Reid a letter with a “plan for greater transparency.” Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) also issued a press release:
Citing the right of Arkansans to know in advance what health care changes that Senators will be voting on later this month, U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) today led a group of Democratic Senators in pressuring Senate leaders for greater transparency in the health insurance reform debate.
Here is the sentence relevant to the upcoming cloture vote:
The legislative text and complete budget scores from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the health care legislation considered on the Senate floor should be made available on a website the public can access for at least 72 hours prior to the first vote to proceed to the legislation.
The bill text was posted Wednesday evening. The CBO score was available late last night (I first saw an emailed copy just after 11 PM EST.)
Following the Lincoln 72-hour rule, that means the cloture vote on the motion to proceed should not occur until late Saturday night.
It will be interesting to see how those eight Senators prioritize sticking to the letter of their plan, versus inconveniencing their colleagues and making them stay late Saturday night.
The eight Senators are:
- Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
- Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
- Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
- Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
- Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)