Debt vote in Senate kept from public view

http://gazette.com/debt-vote-in-senate-kept-from-public-view/article/feed/89491



In this Feb. 12, 2014, photo, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., from left, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, talk as they wait in the majority leader's office, for a meting King Abdullah II of Jordan, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The meeting came after lawmakers voted on must-pass legislation to increase the government's debt limit and after their leaders decided to drop the parliamentary equivalent of a curtain on the voting until its outcome was assured

Debt vote in Senate kept from public view
Associated Press Updated: February 14, 2014 at 3:30 am • Published: February 14, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — Financial markets were watching, the retirement accounts of millions of Americans on the line.

Nervous senators were watching too, well aware that political fortunes could be on the line.

So on perhaps the most important vote of the year, the Senate did something extraordinary this week: It tried to keep the vote tally secret until the outcome was assured.

As lawmakers voted Wednesday on must-pass legislation to increase the government's debt limit, they dropped the parliamentary equivalent of a curtain on the voting as it was in progress.