Health care dead? Many members of the House still don’t think so, even though they are still adamant they won’t just pass the Senate health reform bill, and then try to fix it through budget reconciliation.
So where’s the reason for any hope? There’s a new tack members are looking at that does not require them to trust the fallible, more deliberative chamber. That’s pass the fix through budget reconciliation first.
“I think fixing it first, then passing the Senate bill” is a possibility, Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel said. “I wouldn’t pass the Senate bill with the hope that we fix it, even if they agree to it.”
The thinking is simple.
“Some people say that because all money — finance bills — have to emanate from the House, that you could do reconciliation first, which would be fixing the bill, 51 votes (in the Senate), and then getting the House to pass the (original) Senate bill after the Senate has passed reconciliation,” he said.
Queens Rep. Gary Ackerman suggested a similar plan to twin a reconciliation measure with the Senate bill.
“I was talking about doing them concurrently, with a special rule that would have to be passed first in the House and agreed to ahead of time in the Senate, that when one is passed the other bill is deemed to be passed at the same time,” Ackerman said. “But they have to be agreed to first.”
SOURCE: New York Daily News
