Top Dem: Health bill reconciliation needs to be private

A key Democrat on healthcare reform Thursday said that reconciliation discussions on the overhaul package need to be held in private in order to secure its passage. 

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) -- who is chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee -- said that privacy is needed in order to hammer out the final details of the healthcare bill.

"When you get down to the final negotiations between the House and the Senate to reconcile the bill, there has to be some private discussions otherwise the bill will never become law," he said on Fox News. "You would never actually get any bill, this bill or any bill, unless you allowed for private negotiations."

The congressman's words come as Republicans have criticized Democrats for not allowing C-SPAN cameras into the informal merger talks between House and Senate Democratic leaders. C-SPAN wrote a letter to congressional leaders Tuesday requesting they be allowed to film and broadcast the meetings. 

Pallone defended the healthcare negotiations, saying that they have "had more transparency that I have ever seen," echoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) comments made on Tuesday.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have not said that the negotiations need to be private.

The New Jersey lawmaker defended President Barack Obama against charges that he violated his campaign promise to allow C-SPAN cameras into the healthcare negotiations. Pallone stressed that Obama meant the public portions of the negotiations, not the merger talks.

"He was talking about the major times we were debating or having hearings on this bill and we have done that many times always with C-SPAN," he said.

Pallone said even if meetings at the White House between the president and congressional leaders were broadcast, they would later convene privately.

"And even if C-SPAN came to the White House today, there would still have to be negotiations later in the day or the next day," he said.

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