Washington (CNN) – There appeared to be enough
votes in the House on Wednesday to approve legislation to reopen the federal
government, according to an ongoing CNN survey of House members.
All 200
Democrats and 19 Republicans support passing a continuing resolution with no
additional legislative strings attached that would reopen the federal
government, which has been partially closed for a week over a bitter policy
dispute between Republicans and Democrats on health care. With three vacancies
in 435 member House, 217 votes are currently the minimum needed for the measure
to win approval in the House.
CNN's
vote count appears to bear out what President Barack Obama said on Monday.
"The
truth of the matter is, there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the
House of Representatives right now to end this shutdown immediately with no
partisan strings attached," Obama said.
But this
does not mean a vote will happen any time soon, given that these Republicans
have not indicated a willingness to try to force Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio,
to bring a continuing resolution with no strings attached to the floor for a
vote. After a meeting with Republicans on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of
Oklahoma told CNN that the speaker told members there would not be a House vote
on a "clean" government funding bill.
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