After vowing to use every procedural roadblock at their disposal to delay a final vote on the health care overhaul bill, Senate Republicans finally gave up and headed home for Christmas, hopefully in time to beat the blizzard spanking middle America. With Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Senate, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (read it here) passed with a 60-39 vote along party lines this morning. Beginning at 7:05 a.m., Senators began casting their aye or nay votes, and when Biden came to ailing Robert Byrd, the 92-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, he said, "Mr. President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye!" more ›

At 1 a.m. this morning, with D.C. still digging out from an historic blizzard, the Senate voted 60-40 along party lines to cut off debate on an expansive health care legislation. After securing the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, on Saturday, the Senate appears on track to pass the bill by Christmas Eve. At this point, Senate Republicans are fighting the bill with parliamentary tactics, demanding the full 30 hours of debate allowed under the rules after each filibuster is broken by a vote of 60 senators. Because the storm had severly delayed Amtrak, a government plane was sent to retrieve New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. more ›

The NY Sun has a status report on the proposed rocket train. Good news for rail riders, "the House passed legislation [The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act] requiring the federal government to solicit proposals for its financing and development." The plan has Bloomberg's full support, and would make the NYC to D.C. trip under two hours...but it will cost a pretty penny.

New York was in full support calls for $14.4 billion in rail investment in the next five years. Some of those funds could go toward the development of the high-speed passenger train, as well as other local projects, such as a renovated Pennsylvania Station to be named after Senator Moynihan.