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Dem lawmaker: Strong likelihood of using reconciliation to pass health bill
The likelihood is high that the Senate will use the budget reconciliation process to pass healthcare reform legislation, a key Democratic lawmaker said Monday.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said that the urgency of passing the healthcare overhaul justifies the use of the controversial legislative tactic.
Though President Barack Obama prioritized jobs and the economy in his State of the Union address last week, he also promised not to walk away from healthcare reform legislation that has served as the signature legislative item.
But House and Senate Democrats have sparred over alternative ways to circumvent a filibuster of the bill in the Senate since Scott Brown was elected to be the 41st Republican senator last month.
Under a plan now favored by some House Democrats including Engel, the House could pass a new bill containing modifications of the Senate bill that the upper chamber could approve using reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes to pass legislation.
"If they were to do that, then ostensibly the House could then potentially pass the Senate bill with those changes," Engel said, though he stressed that House Democrats have not yet settled on that plan.
Using reconciliation could prove risky for Democrats, which has discouraged some lawmakers from supporting it. Reconciliation is meant to be used to pass budgetary measures and the Senate parliamentarian could strike measures that raise revenue or spending.
But Engel stressed that it is not acceptable to allow Brown's victory to derail healthcare.
"We are kidding ourselves if we dismiss the fact that in very blue Massachusetts, in Ted Kennedy's old seat, we now have a Republican sitting there," he said.
"It's just unthinkable. And to think that was the 60th vote for health care reform and that was Ted Kennedy's whole life's work! He must be rolling in his grave," he added.
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