Community | December 18, 2009 | 10 comments

Reid to unveil final version of Senate health Bill

source: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/72979-reid-to-unveil-final-offer-on-healthcare-bill-on-...

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will make his final offer on healthcare legislation on Saturday morning, unveiling a highly-anticipated amendment to the Senate healthcare bill.

Reid will unveil his amendment with a cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shortly after the Senate votes at around 7:30 Saturday morning to clear a Defense spending bill.

“That’s the plan, soon after that vote because we want to file cloture on that quickly,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Reid’s amendment will include all the changes he has proposed to secure the votes of 60 Democratic senators for the healthcare bill. The amendment may include a compromise on abortion language, a sticking point for centrist Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

Durbin said it was necessary to unveil Reid’s amendment and file a motion to cut of a GOP filibuster on Saturday morning to set up a preliminary vote at 1 a.m. Monday.

Lawmakers must vote early Monday to cut off debate on Reid’s amendment if they are to stick to a timeline that would set a final vote on the healthcare bill after 7 pm on Christmas Eve.

Republicans may demand that Senate clerks read aloud Reid’s amendment, which could total several hundred pages. But Democrats say a reading could be completed within the same day and would not disrupt the schedule.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/72979-reid-to-unveil-final-offer-on-healthc...
  1. groups:
    Community,   US Politics,   Healthcare,   US Congress Watch,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Health Care Reform,  Harry Reid,  United States Senate
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10 comments // Reid to unveil final version of Senate health Bill

  • Logos51891
  • Tom_Richfield
  • JanforGore
  • smallgod
    • 0
      smallgod  

    • This bill is dead and makes me sick. I write my congressman daily about it. Anything worthwhile to the AMERICAN PEOPLE has been stripped, while mandated corporate profits remain. FUCK THIS BILL. KILL IT PLEASE.

    • 2 years ago
  • iPedro
    • 0
      iPedro  

    • This is but a hurdle in the process. I was very disappointed to see the Medicare buy-in cut out by Lieberman who seems to have done it to provoke the Liberals... just because he can. Medicare buy in was the foot in the door to a single payer system.

      Getting it done hasn't happened in one fell swoop in 100 years that it's been debated and it wasn't going to happen now. This is something that will be worked on for many terms of Congress and perhaps through many Presidents. Finally getting started isn't so bad.

      I'm eager to see the bill passed and then moved on to a consensus bill between both houses.

      I've searched for the process on how the committee stitches both bills together and then how each chamber deals with the consolidated bill. I haven't yet found my clear answer.

      Will the consensus bill need to be debated once it's presented, thus requiring 60 votes in the Senate to open and close debate or will it immediately go to a vote, requiring only a simple majority of 51 votes?

      The House bill has the public option. The Senate doesn't. How do you get the same amount of support in both houses that passed the original bills by either including it or excluding it? It won't happen. They'll reach a stalemate.

    • 2 years ago
  • iPedro
    • 0
      iPedro  
    • iPedro:

      I found this tidbit:

      "Once a bill has been passed by a conference committee, it goes directly to the floor of both houses for a vote, and is not open to further amendment."

      This suggests that once the conference committee produces a merged bill, it goes straight to a vote where a simply majority (i.e 51 votes in the Senate) is required to pass the bill.

      This could render Lieberman's wining and demands powerless. The House includes a public option, the Senate's bill does not. A compromise would be the one originally proposed: Government overseen non-profit insurance + Medicare buy in for 55+ yr olds.

      The conference committee could yet come up with a bill that we can be proud of.

    • 2 years ago
  • JonRaymond
  • H3ADLINE
    • 0
      H3ADLINE  

    • I'm willing to bet Reid will find some novel way of making the legislation even more toothless. Doing otherwise would upset what's become a tradition.

    • 2 years ago
  • ignignokt
  • uroborus8
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