Posted on 03/09/2010 9:49:01 PM PST by freespirited
The White House and Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were bracing for a key procedural ruling that could complicate their effort to approve major health care legislation, by requiring President Obama to sign the bill into law before Congress could revise it through an expedited budget process.
An official determination on the matter could come within days from House and Senate parliamentarians, and could present another hurdle for Obama and Democratic leaders as they try to lock in support from skittish lawmakers in the House.
Meanwhile, Congressional leaders and top administration officials met in the offices of House speaker Pelosi Tuesday trying to resolve outstanding policy differences.
House leaders were still navigating potential pitfalls, including a dispute over coverage of abortion, while opponents, including a leading business group, planned television advertisements attacking the proposal.
Many rank-and-file House Democrats are reluctant to approve the Senate-passed health care measure without a guarantee that the Senate would follow up with changes in a budget reconciliation bill. The Senate measure included a number of provisions House members dislike, including deals to secure the support of individual senators, like extra Medicaid money for Nebraska.
Democratic leaders had been contemplating an intricate legislative two-step, by which the House would approve the original Senate measure and both chambers would adopt a package of changes in a budget reconciliation bill. Both measures would then be sent to Obama for his signature.
Some officials said House leaders were holding out hope for a favorable ruling by parliamentarians that would allow them to proceed as planned — or to circumvent the problem.
But Senator Kent Conrad,chairman of the Budget Committee, said the reconciliation instructions in last year's budget resolution seemed to require that Obama sign the Senate bill into law before it could be changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well at least they decided to not meet in the showers ‘butt naked’....
What a harebrained way to pass laws. That’s the nicest thing I can say about it.
Who makes up these rules? It goes to another branch before this bransh is even finished with it?
Branch, not bransh. Need new specs!
Each chamber has a rules committee. I assume these things typically originate there, but exceptions would not be a surprise.
Rush makes an excellent point on this strategy. If they pass the Senate bill with the promises of “fixes” in follow-on legislation, the “fixes” will never happen. The Dems will want to sweep this entire cluster-flop as far under they rug as they can between now and Election Day. The news and Congress will go into silent running mode on health care for the rest of the year. No trumpeting of accomplishment, no fixes - nothing but stone cold silence to avoid re-angering the electorate (and hope that we have very short memories).
Stupak claims that he and his gang wont accept a deal that requires them to rely on a future fix. But AFAIK, it’s the only “option” for them.
It sounds like he wants a new bill that the House would pass the regular way and the Senate would pass by reconciliation. I doubt they can do it.
Seems like Dems are always in a hurry to pass bills so they can go on vacation. Pelosi wanted to get the Porkulus done so she could go to Europe.
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