Please see the summary article from Congress Daily below.  The Senate fell one vote short tonight of invoking cloture and proceeding to debate the House-passed Medicare bill (Reid switched his vote to "no" at the last moment to reserve the right to bring the bill back up for consideration in July).  Senate Democrats are promising another shot at passing the bill -- or something similar -- in July after next week's recess.

SENATE FALLS A VOTE SHORT OF MOVING ON MEDICARE PAY PATCH
By Anna Edney with Ben Schneider contributing


Senate Democrats Thursday came one vote shy of limiting debate on Medicare
legislation that would have averted a Medicare physician pay cut set to
take effect Tuesday.

The bill went down 58-40, with 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. Majority
Leader Reid changed his vote to “no” to reserve the right to bring it
back up.

The legislation is nearly identical to a bill Finance Chairman Max Baucus
proposed that fell short earlier this month of the necessary votes to limit
debate. Democrats hoped the impending deadline and unexpected overwhelming
support in the House would put enough heat on GOP senators to support
cutting off debate.

Reid rejected an alternative Republican proposal after the cloture vote to
extend current Medicare physician payment rate levels for 30 days.

“We’ll be back, and you’ll have another opportunity to vote for
this,” Reid said about the House-passed legislation.

“During the next 10 days, think about how you’re going to vote on this
next time,” Reid said.

Following the vote, Reid and Senate Minority Leader McConnell traded jabs.
Reid said such actions by Republicans led voters to turn on them already,
pointing to GOP losses in special elections as evidence.

“What in the world does that have to do with the subject matter?”
McConnell asked.

Republican leaders pleaded with their members prior to the vote to insist
on bipartisanship rather than approving the House-passed measure, while
Democrats hammered the point that members would not have another chance to
show physicians their support before the cut is implemented.

“For years, the Finance Committee has been the model of how a committee
can work,” Finance ranking member Charles Grassley said. “For some
reason, that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.”

Grassley and Baucus reached a tentative agreement this week, but Senate
Democrats abandoned the deal once the House unexpectedly passed the bill
with a veto-proof margin, 355-59.

The compromise would have avoided a promised veto of the House-passed
measure over cuts in Medicare payments to private insurance companies and
an expansion of Medicare low-income assistance.

Grassley voted against limiting debate on the House bill but admitted he
does not agree with the president: “I personally think the White House
has drawn lines in the sand that are unreasonable.”

Most Senate Republicans followed Grassley’s lead in what Reid called
“a dangerous game of chicken.