Dingell stresses urgency of passing healthcare bill

The senior-most House member on Thursday stressed that finishing healthcare is an "urgent" matter. 

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) who is considered to be the father of healthcare reform in the House, said that Congress should pass the bill sooner rather than later. 

Asked on ABC News' "Top Line" webcast if he agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) sentiment that there is no rush to pass the healthcare overhaul, Dingell said "My personal feeling is that there is a great urgency to all of this business.

"There is a desperate need for this," he added. 

The congressman wouldn't directly address Reid's comments, but said that "The longest couple hundred yards in the world is the distance between the House of Representatives in Washington and the United States Senate."

President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address last night chose to put economy and jobs at the forefront, leaving some lawmakers to say that he has changed subjects. 

But the president emphasized later in his address that he would not walk away from healthcare reform legislation, arguably the signature initiative of his first year.

Dingell still cautioned that it is important to take time to work on the legislation in order to get it right, but he said multiple times during the interview that healthcare is an urgent issue.

"[It] is a matter of desperate urgency in this country," he said.

The Michigan Democrat said Obama gave "a very conciliatory" address overall, mostly because he made multiple pleas for bipartisanship.

But the president also took multiple shots at the GOP for opposing much of his legislative agenda during his first year.

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