House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: 'We're Going to Have a Clean Up or Down Vote'

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Source: ABC News

Hoyer, Eric Cantor Spar Over Health Care Vote Count, Parliamentary Tactics

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today hinted that Democrats may use a controversial parliamentary procedure to pass the health care bill, a tactic that House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor charged would be an attempt to fool the public.

"We're going to have a clean up or down vote on the Senate bill, that will be on the rule," Hoyer, D-Md., said on "Good Morning America" today. "This is not an unusual procedure. We're going to vote on a rule."

The controversial procedure would allow House members to vote on health care changes without ever voting directly on the Senate bill. In this case, the House would vote on a "fix it" measure that would make changes to the Senate health care bill and then automatically, in the process, pass the bill without actually having to vote on it.

The procedure has been used 20 times over the last 30 years by both Democrats and Republicans, often on technical or unpopular measures like raising the debt limit, but never on one as big as health care reform.

"Unfortunately, the Republicans are a little bit like the boy who killed his two parents and then wants sympathy because they're an orphan. They've tried to stop the passage of this bill, slowed it up," Hoyer said. "We'll vote for the Senate bill in the rule, and then we will amend the Senate bill in the process."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/HealthCare/health-care-steny-hoyer-eric-cantor-spar-vote/story?id=10122227