Yesterday, the Senate Finance committee voted to approve America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.  All thirteen Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the bill.  Of the ten Republicans, only Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted in favor.

What happens next? 

Although most media attention has been focused on the Senate Finance committee bill, there are several other bills still being discussed in Congress.  One of those bills was developed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee.  Starting later today, representatives from the Senate Finance committee will work with representatives from the HELP committee to merge the two bills.  What comes out of those behind-the-scenes meetings will go the floor of the full Senate for a final vote and, if it passes, to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

The people working to merge the two bills in these private meetings will be:

• Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader (D-NV)

• Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance committee (D-MT)

• Senator Chris Dodd, acting chair of the HELP committee (D-CT)

• Senator Tom Harkin, chair of the HELP committee (D-IA)

• Various White House staffers including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and “health care czar” Nancy-Ann DeParle

Snowe has also been invited to these sessions.  Snowe will likely play a major role in shaping the final bill, due to the Democrats needing some Republican and Conservative Democrat support to avoid a filibuster.  She represents the only Republican support of either bill. 

Due to the different jurisdictions of the committees and the influence of the parties involved, the Finance Committee’s bill may be used as a starting point, with pieces of the HELP committee’s bill added in various spots.

Some sources are saying that the final bill will be on the Senate floor by the end of the month, but so far most of the health care debate has taken much longer than expected.

Sources:

OpenCongress – Finance Committee Says “Yes” to Health Care Reform 

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1291-Finance-Committee-Says-Yes-to-Health-Care-Reform

WashingtonPost – Snowe Stays in the Spotlight

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/10/snowe_stays_in_the_spotlight.html?hpid=topnews

WashingtonPost – The Next Step for Health-Care [sic] Reform

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/10/the_next_step_for_health-care.html

Filed under: health care reform, News by admin