Health bill inches forward in House
WASHINGTON — House Democrats pushed ahead with a compromise health overhaul Thursday over liberals' complaints, intent on achieving tangible – if modest – success on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority ahead of a monthlong summer recess.
"We've got to pass the bill. Not only do we have to, but we're going to," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the last of three House committees to act on the sweeping legislation.
There was late-night drama in Waxman's committee as an anti-abortion amendment passed when conservative Democrats joined Republicans to support it – then failed less than two hours later when Waxman used a procedural maneuver to bring it up for a second vote.
In the intervening time one conservative Democrat – Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee – changed his vote from "yes" to "no." And a second conservative Democrat who hadn't voted the first time – Rep. Zack Space of Ohio – voted "no." It was enough to take the amendment down on a vote of 29 to 30.
The measure would have specified that health care legislation moving through Congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion, except in limited cases.
Across the Capitol, there was more delay as bipartisan Senate negotiators announced they needed additional time to produce any agreement for their committee to review.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman on the Finance Committee, said it would be September before the panel could act. He spoke after a day of uncertainty in which months of negotiations briefly appeared to veer off-course.
"The president, Leader (Harry) Reid and I share the goal of a bipartisan bill and we will continue to work toward meaningful, bipartisan legislation that can pass the Senate and become law this year," Baucus said in a statement.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the lead Republican in the talks, said earlier that the discussions have made very good progress and may result in a deal. "But that'll never happen if Democrat leaders tell Republicans to take a hike by forcing the committee to move on an all-Democrat bill," he said.
Reid told reporters during the day that August deadlines were a product of the media, rather than lawmakers or the White House.
Republicans swiftly produced a rebuttal, in the form of statements from Obama as well as Reid underscoring the importance of action by early August.
Both chambers already had jettisoned plans for floor votes before the summer break, but Democrats had hoped to get bills out of the final House and Senate committees that had yet to act.
That would have allowed Democrats to show clear momentum when they returned to their home districts and states in August, so the news out of the Senate Finance Committee was a setback.
But in the House Waxman's committee resumed work Thursday, with the goal of finishing Friday, after a week-and-a-half delay caused by objections from fiscally conservative Democrats. That rebellion was quelled at least temporarily with an agreement Wednesday that would protect more small businesses from a requirement to provide insurance to their employees, and restructure a new public insurance plan so it could pay higher rates to doctors and other providers, among other changes.
But the concessions Waxman made to the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats infuriated House liberals. They denounced the proposed new structure of the government-run insurance option, which was originally designed to be based on Medicare rates. The new structure says rates would be negotiated with providers as occurs now with private companies, which could result in more expensive care.
"This agreement is not a step forward toward a good health care bill, but a large step backwards," 57 Progressive Caucus members said in a letter to House leaders Thursday. "Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, for a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates – not negotiated rates – is unacceptable."
Liberals threatened to vote against the bill if it comes to the floor without a stronger public plan. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., an Energy and Commerce member, said they probably had enough votes to block the Blue Dog deal in committee.
Some details of the deal remained murky. As part of the agreement the Blue Dogs are insisting they won't vote for a bill that costs more than $1 trillion over 10 years, but that would require Democrats to make more cuts or raise more money. It wasn't clear how much, or how it would be accomplished.
As Energy and Commerce lawmakers worked through stacks of Republican and Democratic amendments, Waxman's shaky majority was on display early, when the committee voted 29-28 to defeat a Republican amendment to strengthen ID requirements designed to prevent illegal immigrants from getting Medicaid benefits.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed confidence the committee would approve the bill, and said the full House would follow suit in the fall. She also signaled flexibility on key issues, saying that despite her own backing for abortion rights, she would not allow the issue to torpedo legislation. Abortion has become a flash point in the health care debate.
Highlighting the frenetic activity the overhaul has spurred in Washington, health interests have reported spending $262 million lobbying in the first six months of 2009, more than any other portion of the economy, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
That was $23 million more than health-related companies and groups spent lobbying during the first half of 2008.
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Ann Sanner, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and David Espo contributed to this report.
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ERICA WERNER | 07/30/09 11:58 PM |