Monday, March 15, 2010

What to expect next in the House on health reform

Tuesday

The Congressional Budget Office provides a score of the final bill. Democrats will post the reconciliation bill online for 72 hours. The bill will be reviewed and revised to deal with and minimize possible Byrd Rule challenges in the Senate, correct any problems presented by the CBO scoring and deal with other problems that might surface at the last minute.

Wednesday

Obama will meet with Democratic leaders to deal with final issues that might affect the vote including last minute arm twisting that might be necessary to get 216 votes in the House.

Thursday

The Rules Committee takes up the reconciliation bill and reports it out to the floor of the House for a vote. Usually, the vote occurs the next day but Pelosi could hold the vote on Thursday if she thinks she has 216 votes.

Friday or Saturday

The House has three voting options: (1) The House votes and passes the Senate bill and then the reconciliation bill OR (2) the House votes on the reconciliation bill only and “deems” the Senate bill passed when the Houses passes the reconciliation bill OR (3) “deems” the Senate bill passed when the Senate passes the reconciliaton bill.

If the House follows options 1 or 2, Obama could sign the Senate bill into law before he leaves on his trip. It the House follows option 3, it might take another week or two for the Senate to bring up and pass (by 51 Democratic votes) the reconciliation bill and then the Senate bill with the reconciliatin amendments becomes law.

Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/15/and-here-we-go-2/#ixzz0iHmaxCMf


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