As their names were called one-by-one, senators stood up and announced support or opposition.
The chamber was momentarily stunned when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stood and accidentally voted against the bill.
Reid quickly changed his vote to yes. Fellow senators and those in the galleries chuckled as Reid put his head down and shrugged his shoulders in obvious embarrassment.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., had already voted and might have been the most startled by Reid's momentary opposition.
After all, Nelson only agreed to support the bill after marathon negotiating sessions with the majority leader and others.
"I just said ‘The leader has succumbed to fatigue,'" Nelson told reporters later. "It was a moment of levity, there's no doubt about it."
- Joseph Morton
WASHINGTON - Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson joined fellow Democrats in voting to pass the Senate health care bill this morning before lawmakers left town for Christmas.
That final vote required only a simple majority, but on several procedural moves this week, Nelson provided the crucial 60th vote to move the legislation forward. Nelson said after the final vote that he felt good about supporting the legislation.
"I know there are a lot of people who have an opposing point of view," Nelson said.
He said Americans already uneasy about the state of the economy have been confused by misinformation about the complicated health care bill.
"It's not surprising that people are upset," Nelson said.
Nelson said that if Congress fails to act, the cost of health insurance will continue to increase beyond the ability of people to pay.
"For those who just simply say do nothing, they're ignoring the reality of what's going on," Nelson said.
Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., voted against the bill and said its passage represented a reversal of "the lofty and now empty rhetoric of 2008 and early 2009,"
"We now know this bill passed only because of back-room deals for Democrats and special carve-outs agreed to in the dead of night with the cameras off," Johanns said.
Johanns said the bill includes tax increases, mandates on state budgets.
He also criticized the compromise Nelson brokered on federal funding for abortion coverage. Health insurance plans that accept federally subsidized individuals are allowed to offer abortion coverage, but the insured must write a separate check with their own money for the abortion coverage.
That money will be kept separate from other funds.
Critics have described it as an accounting gimmick.
"The door to federally funding abortions has now been blown wide open," Johanns said today.
Well after the vote had concluded, Nelson stood in the nearly-deserted Senate chamber and delivered a speech on the abortion issue.
He defended the abortion compromise that he negotiated, saying it is true to long-standing prohibitions on the use of public money for abortions.
"I stuck to my guns and stood for my pro-life principles," Nelson said.
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