The Senate voted 100-0 on Wednesday to end debate on a spending bill after a 21-hour and 19-minute speech by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Cruz, a favorite of the Tea Party, held up the bill to call for the elimination of federal funds for the Affordable Care Act, the 2009 law that reauthorized the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Yet he joined the unanimous vote to kill his own marathon speech.

The Senate will now move toward final consideration of H.J.Res.59, a bill that continues funding for federal agencies. Democrats plan to remove the anti-ACA provision in hopes of getting the House to agree in order to avert a government shutdown that most Americans do not want to see.

Republicans, meanwhile, appear to have shifted their focus to the upcoming debt limit talks in hopes of gaining concessions from President Barack Obama on some of their issues.

Get the Story:
Cruz ends anti-Obamacare talkathon after 21 hours (The Washington Post 9/26)
House Republicans explore strategy to avoid federal government shutdown (The Washington Post 9/26)
A New Senator Stops Talking, and a Vote on Spending Nears (The New York Times 9/26)
Cruz, Tea Party Hero, Rankles Senate G.O.P. Colleagues (The New York Times 9/26)
Poll Shows Disapproval of Threat of Government Shutdown (The New York Times 9/26)

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Mark Trahant: Republicans are willing to destroy IHS system (9/19)