I find this extremely disappointing, and hope there is a good reason.  The Republicans only had 217 votes.  Had Towns and Boswell voted against the bill, it would have been 217-217, meaning a defeat.  This is one of those times when every Democrat should have been expected to be present on the floor.  Every Republican was.

This should have been an absolute top priority.  Substantively, this bill was a disaster, with cuts in basics (and usual Republican targets) like student loan programs and already bare-bones public assistance programs.  Politically, it was an extraordinary opportunity to follow up on the embarassing defeat for the Republican leadership in the Health and Education appropriations bill earlier that day.  Unfortunately, the Republican leadership now looks like they were strong enough to pull something out of the fire at the last minute - which is the way the AM headlines are running.