House Democrats hope their health vote will 'galvanize' the Senate

House Democrats hope their passing a health bill will help propel the Senate to approve legislation, one lawmaker said Monday morning.

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), the chairwoman of the New Democrat Coalition's healthcare task force, said that House Democrats hope that their weekend actions on their health bill will "galvanize" senators to support their version of health reform.

"What we certainly expect and hope from this very important piece of legislation passing the House after so many months of hard work is that it will help propel the Senate to take action to meld their two bills, to be able to form a piece of legislation that will galvanize enough votes to pass the Senate and get it to conference committee," Schwartz said during an appearance on the Fox Business Network.

"We think our action helps move the Senate legislation," she later added.

The Senate is hoping to take up debate on its health bill later this month or in early December, which may delay the end-of-year deadline by which congressional leaders had hoped to pass a final health bill for President Barack Obama's signature.

"The president asked us to get that bill to his desk by the end of this year — I think that is a deadline we ought to meet," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said that she and other House leaders had been in conversations with the Senate already, emphasizing that they will not wait until a conference committee between the two chambers' bills.

"We are absolutely committed to passing healthcare reform this year, and of course there have been a lot of conversations between the House and the Senate; we don't wait for conference committee," Schwartz said.

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