Democratic leadership announced early today that they would have the 216 votes needed to pass health-care legislation through the House of Representatives.  Additionally, and a bit of a surprise I might add, was Rep. Bart Stupak changing from a no vote, to a yes vote, after being a long standing holdout over abortion language in the bill.

There will be a series of votes in the House today, with the final vote on the Senate bill beginning at 7 PM Eastern and the final vote onteh reconciliation, or "fixes" bill, around 9 PM.  The session began at 1 PM this afternoon and they typically schedule several votes that don't necessarily have anything to do with the major issue of the day, in this case health-care reform, simply to get everyone in place.

If the bill passes the House today, it will indeed be history in the making.  It has been decades since any Congress, or President, have been able to enact reforms of this magnitude, although it is a certainty that further legislation will be needed in the years to come to fix the problems not resolved with this legislation.  That being said, it's a step in the right direction for expanded coverage and lower deficits

In any event, we'll let you know when they begin voting on the first round of scheduled votes on health-care.

UPDATE: The first health-care vote has begun.  It is a vote on the rules to move forward on the final two votes, which include a vote on the reconciliation bill,  followed by a vote on the original Senate bill.  At the moment there is a 20 minute debate going on after Republicans called a point of order on a perceived violation of House rules.

UPDATE #2: The first vote on the rules to move forward passed by a margin of 228 - 196, with 8 no votes.  Now there will be several hours of debate before the House votes on the original health-care bill from the Senate.  Officially, the schedule says the Senate vote is supposed to begin around 7 PM, however the word is that it might be as late as 8, 9, or even 10 o'clock this evening.

Sit tight.

UPDATE #3: Rep. Bart Stupak held a press conference to announce that he and 6 to 8 others will definitely be voting yes on the health-care bill in the House tonight, in exchange for an executive order by the President saying that the Hyde amendment, or the current law banning federal funds paying for abortions, will apply to the health bill.  It is significant, not only because it guarantees that the the Democrats will successfully pass health reform through the House, but because the anti-abortion element in the majority party are satisfied that the bill doesn't allow for tax payer money to subsidize abortions.  Many fears from the pro-life movement were allayed today.

UPDATE #4: We finally got through the majority of debate on the Senate health-care bill, and  just listened to John Boehner going slightly crazy.  His speech was pretty over the top to be honest and full of a lot of drama, going so far as to yell and call shame on the members of the House.

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi spoke last and one interesting comment she made was that the bill contained 200 Republican amendments.  Watch the Speaker's comments below:





The Senate bill has passed the House in an historic vote 219 - 212

UPDATE #5: The House quickly took up the vote on the "fixes" bill which would remove many of the most controversial elements of the Senate bill that was just passed.  The bill passed 220 - 211, and will now be picked up by the Senate, expected to pass with 51 votes  through a process called reconciliation.

UPDATE #6: President Obama appeared with Vice President Biden to praise the passage of health-care through the House of Representatives, specifically calling Speaker Pelosi one of the greatest Speakers of all time.  It truly is amazing that the Democrats could get major health reform done in such a partisan environment, making it the first legislation of its type and size to be passed in over 50 years.  Watch the President's comments below: