Health Reform Negotiations to Continue Over Congressional Recess

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives went home to their congressional districts last Friday for a month of recess and discussion with constituents about the health care reform legislation unfolding in the House. All three committees tasked with developing health reform legislation have approved individual bills. Securing agreement on the bill that was reported out of the Energy and Commerce Committee late last Friday proved challenging for Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), who knit together a compromise deal between several conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats and liberal Democrats.

Representative Waxman’s committee, the Ways and Means Committee, and Education and Labor Committee, along with House leaders, will work during the recess to meld together the committees’ products into a single bill to be brought to the floor for a vote in September.

Differences between the three committees’ work and various factions within the Democratic caucus on key points central to the bill, such as the nature of a public plan option and the overall cost of the bill, will make delicate the task of developing a single bill that can be supported by the caucus. Democratic House leaders and the White House, have clearly made the passage of health reform legislation their top priority, setting mid-September as the time for a likely vote on the bill on the House floor.

The U.S. Senate will recess beginning this Friday. The long-awaited bipartisan agreement on the framework of a health reform package will not emerge from the Finance Committee until September, according to Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Chairman Baucus and a small bipartisan group of panel members have been working behind closed doors for weeks trying to come up with an agreement that can pass the Senate. Details of the negotiations are few. However, the Senate Finance Committee’s work on a public plan compromise will likely produce an outcome more conservative, with less government involvement than will probably emerge from the House.

Once the House and the Senate each pass health reform legislation on the floor, the different versions will need to be reconciled through a conference committee. Given tighter margins in the Senate and Baucus’ goal of producing a bipartisan package, the Senate’s bill will likely carry greater weight in terms of influencing the ultimate conference agreement. Contact: Susan Van Meter