House Abruptly Passes Medicare Pay Fix By Voice Vote

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2014, photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio gestures while speaking during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The road the country has been on for the past five years is now b... FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2014, photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio gestures while speaking during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The road the country has been on for the past five years is now beginning to come to an end. The Federal Reserve, which pumped $3 trillion into the economy to keep the Great Recession from worsening, is withdrawing its financial lifeline amid signs of fresh economic growth. The nation’s gross domestic product is inching up and annual federal budget deficits are heading down. How Washington policymakers respond to the improvements in the economy may even sow the seeds for more cooperation in Washington. "The president’s policies are not working," Boehner declares.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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The Republican-led House abruptly and unexpectedly passed a Medicare physician payment fix Thursday by an unrecorded voice vote, amid questions about whether the bill had the votes to clear the chamber.

It would avert a 24 percent pay cut to doctors that was set to take effect April 1.

After temporarily recessing the House, GOP leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting and called up the bill for a voice vote. A recorded vote can be demanded by one-fifth of members present in the chamber, but such an objection wasn’t mounted. So the bill was subsequently declared passed.

A House Republican leadership aide said Democratic leaders were informed in advance of the voice vote, and therefore given the opportunity to object. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) signed off on the GOP leadership’s decision to pass the bill by a voice vote, according to a senior Democratic aide.

Numerous lawmakers griped afterward about the decision to use a voice vote.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill.

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