In the Senate, Republicans are determined to dismantle or defund the law using a fast-track procedure that requires a simple majority vote, rather than the 60 votes needed for most hotly contested measures.
But the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled this week that some provisions of the House-passed bill were not eligible for expedited procedures, aides to Senate leaders of both parties said Thursday. Democrats said the ruling meant that Republicans would need a supermajority of 60 votes, which they do not have, to repeal the individual and employer mandates.
The office of the Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, issued a statement on Thursday saying, “The parliamentarian has ruled that Obamacare cannot be repealed through reconciliation.”
“Any fix that repeals the individual or employer mandates will require 60 votes and therefore will not pass,” the statement added.
However, Republicans said that Mr. Reid had misrepresented the parliamentarian’s ruling, the text of which has not been made public. They said that if some provisions of the bill were changed, the Senate could still take up the bill by a simple majority vote and consider it using fast-track procedures.