Wyden will vote for Finance health bill

One of the remaining Democratic holdouts on the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday he would support the health reform legislation set for a vote this afternoon.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who had expressed some lingering concerns over provisions in the bill crafted by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), said this afternoon that he would back sending the bill to the Senate as a whole.

"I want to continue to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle," he said in remarks before the Finance committee, emphasizing that he did not want to do anything to promote groups trying to halt healthcare reform this year.

"My vote today to advance this bill forward is a judgement that there is enough goodwill in this committee and this Congress to move this bill forward," Wyden told colleagues.

Wyden asserted that Baucus and other Democratic leaders had vowed to work with him to ameliorate concerns about the bill as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) works to meld the Finance proposal with the one in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

"I am convinced every one of those colleagues is anxious to get real health reform, while we have spirited debates about how to get that done," the Oregon Democrat said.

The other Democratic holdout whose vote is yet to be determined is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who has expressed frustration that the bill out of the committee lacks a strong public option.