Mr. Brown’s victory means that Senate Democrats now lack a 60-vote majority to withstand a Republican filibuster and pass a final House-Senate version of the reform bill.
One solution is for the House to pass the Senate version of the bill, but many House Democrats are unhappy with the Senate version and now are wary about the new national mood lurking behind the Massachusetts vote.
Another solution would be for the Senate to pass a scaled-back reform bill, using procedural rules to eliminate the need for 60 votes, but it is unclear which provisions of the current legislation could be passed that way.
Read the New York Times’ report on health reform.
