Rockefeller: Finance bill not bipartisan

The Senate Finance Committee's early negotiations excluded key committee members for the sake of a proposal that ultimately "wasn't bipartisan," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) stressed Friday.

Chairman Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) proposal cleared the full Finance Committee on a 14-9 vote this Tuesday — with the help of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), who defected to the chagrin of her GOP colleagues. The majority party has since showered her with praise — and celebrated their newly approved bill as decidedly bipartisan — but Rockefeller on Friday said the proposal was no such thing.

"I mean, I adore Olympia Snowe, and I don't want the Republicans to punish her because she'll be ranking [member] on the Commerce Committee, and we do good work together," Rockefeller told The Washington Post. "But no, it wasn't [bipartisan]; it was all so you could call it bipartisan."

"That's what happened on the stimulus bill ... we got one vote on the stimulus bill and it was always referred to as [the] bipartisan stimulus bill," Rockefeller added. "It wasn't, it wasn't — it was us plus Olympia ... it's game-playing."

At the heart of Rockefeller's latest lament is his lingering dissatisfaction with the early stages of the committee's healthcare negotiations. Rockefeller, one of the Senate Finance Committee's senior members, was not a part of the Gang of Six, which greatly shaped Baucus's proposal. That exclusion meant he and some of his colleagues were left only "reacting to their bill" during markup.

Moreover,  Rockefeller — one of his chamber's chief public-option proponents — saw his government-plan amendment defeated early in the debate process. A similar initiative offered by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) also failed to secure enough votes.

Those two qualms together suggested to Democrats that Rockefeller might vote against Baucus's markup. But the West Virginia Democrat ultimately sided with his colleagues, and he has since made clear he intends to amend that bill once it reaches the Senate floor.

"What changed my mind was ... we tried hard," Rockefeller said Friday. "I put up my version of the public option in the committee for a vote. It got eight votes; that's called 'not enough.' And I know the president is for it, I know [Sen.] Chris Dodd [D-Conn.] is for it — Max Baucus didn't speak against it; he just talked about the need to get 60 votes."

"I'm optimistic about the process, and I think the president will sign the bill by Christmas," he added.