Ted Cruz Wraps Up After 21-Plus Hours

Ted Cruz managed to keep up his anti-ObamaCare crusade on the Senate floor for nearly a full day, but he finally relented about noon today, reports Politico. Cruz began speaking at 2:41pm Eastern yesterday and got some breaks from peers including Rand Paul and Mike Lee. But Cruz had a deadline of sorts—he had to stop by 1pm today so a scheduled procedural vote on the House's controversial spending bill, the one that would defund ObamaCare, could take place. "The only path … is to stand together," Cruz said shortly before relinquishing the floor, reports the Hill.

As expected, that procedural vote passed easily—in fact, by a unanimous vote of 100-0, reports the Washington Post. It simply opens up debate in the Senate on the House measure—and paves the way for Harry Reid and Democrats to restore ObamaCare funding. At that point, the legislation gets sent back to the House, where John Boehner is expected to have a big decision to make right on the deadline for a government shutdown. For the record, the Post puts Cruz's filibuster-that-wasn't-technically-a-filibuster at 21 hours, 19 minutes. (More Ted Cruz stories.)