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Grassroots Blog 3/15/2010 Congressional Leaders Push Unpopular Health Care Bill toward Final Vote By Chris Brock Completely disregarding the outcome of a shocking Senate election in Massachusetts, an outcry of public opposition and defections within its own party, Congressional Democrats are prepared to take controversial steps this week toward passing federal health care reform. The process for moving forward is complicated to say the least. Members of the U.S. House must pass a Senate health care bill disliked by many House members. At the same time, they must pass a separate bill that includes changes to the Senate bill. The Senate must then accept those changes before work can be completed on an overhaul of the health care system. Along the way, members of congress will face numerous rules and procedural roadblocks that could derail the process. All of this comes at a time when Ohioans and Americans oppose passage of the current bill. In fact, a recent poll in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District shows more than 50 percent of respondents oppose the current health care bill. With votes expected in the next few days, NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!
For more information about the current health care proposals, click here. Heath Care Back in the Headlines By Chris Brock On Thursday members of Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) will meet with President Obama for a health care summit. After Scott Brown’s unexpected victory in Massachusetts last month (giving Republicans 41 seats in the U.S. Senate) the White House and Democratic leaders have been struggling to find a strategy for passing health care legislation. But after passing bills in both the U.S. House and Senate before the end of 2009, Congressional Democrats are determined to press on with the finish line so close. Since the stakes are so high, the president has organized Thursday’s summit in an effort to bring both parties together and pass a bill. However, the chances of winning over bipartisan support seem very slim. With that in mind, President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seem to be considering a process called budget reconciliation to pass a bill through the Senate. Doing so only requires 51 votes, but it comes with political risks. Even so, the president today released a new health care proposal, which is very similar to the bill the Senate passed with minor changes. After Thursday’s summit when members of Congress have a chance to discuss the president’s new proposal, several choices must be made. Does Congress still try to pass health care legislation? If so, what does the bill look like and can it muster the votes to pass? For more information visit the Ohio Chamber’s health care page. Card Check Opponents Score another Key Victory By Chris Brock Health care and the economy have certainly dominated the headlines during the last year leaving issues such as the Employee Free Choice Act or “Card Check” on the backburner. But in recent days, the fate a proposal that would drastically change collective bargaining rules was in doubt. President Obama recommended the appointment of labor attorney Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But opponents of Card Check became very concerned with Becker’s nomination as it became clear he would likely push to implement policies similar to Card Check without going through the legislative process. Fortunately, his nomination failed Tuesday night as members of the U.S. Senate voted 52-33 to proceed with Becker’s nomination (60 votes were required to move the debate forward). While Becker’s ascent to the NLRB has stalled for now, Obama has threatened to make a recess appointment. For more information contact Chris Brock at cbrock@ohiochamber.com or visit www.OhioBusinessVotes.org. Third Frontier Headed to May Ballot By Chris Brock On Wednesday, February 3 the Ohio Legislature voted to place a renewal of the Third Frontier program on the May ballot. Doing so ensures additional public and private investments in Ohio companies for years to come. The current program, supported by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, has helped bring investments totaling $6.6 billion to Ohio while creating 48,000 jobs. The renewal of the program would provide $700 million in public money over a four year period in order to attract additional investments from the private sector while creating thousands of new jobs. The current program is set to expire in 2012, but a renewal is needed now to help secure private dollars for other projects well into the future. In the coming weeks and months, the Ohio Chamber will be working to ensure the passage of the Third Frontier renewal (tentatively slated to be Issue 1 on the ballot).
No Game Plan Yet By Chris Brock Following last week’s election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate, congressional leaders are still trying to determine what the best course of action is. Last week several members of Congress spoke up and shared their opinions, but no game plan emerged. Some speculated the President might pull back the curtain on health care reform’s future during his State of the Union speech last night. No such luck. While President Obama made the case for passing health care reform there is no game plan yet. House democrats seem unwilling to pass the Senate bill as is and then make additional changes in second bill while Senate democrats don’t have an appetite for the more progressive ideas on the House agenda.
In summary, Congress is no closer to passing a health care bill this week than last week. Members of the House and Senate are still arguing over strategy and policy as they continue soaking in last week’s stinging defeat in Massachusetts. As unlikely as it seems today, a game plan may emerge in the coming days, so stay tuned for further updates. Brown Wins, Now What? By Chris Brock In a stunning and monumental turn of events, the state of Massachusetts elected Scott Brown on Tuesday to replace the late Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Not well known until a couple weeks ago, the former republican state senator captured what is traditionally a safe haven for democrats by defeating Attorney General Martha Coakley in a special election. So why is this so important and what does it mean? Besides the political ramifications for both parties, the election of Scott Brown drastically changes the health care debate. Until last night, it seemed very likely Senate and House democrats would resolve differences between the two chambers and pass a health care bill in the coming weeks. But with Brown holding the 41st vote for a republican filibuster, the rules have changed. The administration and congressional leaders now have four likely options available to them. - The first would force Congress to pass a bill through both chambers in the next week to 15 days before Brown’s Senate win is officially certified and he is sworn in to office. With compromise negotiations still ongoing – not to mention the political consequences of such a move – moving the bill quickly seems almost impossible.
- The second option forces the House to pass the Senate’s version of health care legislation without any changes. After doing so, both chambers would address other unresolved health care issues in a budget bill to be introduced on February 1st by the President.
- The third option would involve a significant watering down of any reform effort in order to garner more support in both chambers. While this may be a hard pill to swallow for liberals pushing for more aggressive reforms, it could be the least painful for moderates.
- Finally, the last and most undesirable option for democrats is to simply give up on passing a health care bill and blame republicans for its failure.
As the dust settles from Tuesday’s special election, there are more questions than answers regarding the fate of health care. But that doesn’t mean the debate is over. Until further notice, costly health care legislation still threatens employers, employees and the economy.
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For more information about the current health care proposals, click here. By Chris Brock For health care reform, the last 72 hours have been chaotic and fast paced to say the least. After marathon meetings at the White House on Wednesday and Thursday, congressional leaders emerged with a tentative deal to push back the effective date of any excise tax on labor agreements and state and local workers to 2018. In order to pay for this new deal with labor, leaders may seek another $15 billion from the hospital industry and another $10 billion from pharmaceuticals. While these and other issues are being hashed out, the desperation for an agreement has hit a critical point as congressional leaders and the White House fear they may lose a special election on January 19th to replace the late Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. A loss in that race would be a devastating blow to health care supporters in the Senate leaving them with only 59 votes, one short of the 60 needed to pass a bill.
Either way, it is imperative for Ohioans to continue contacting members of Congress. With several individuals still in play including; Congressmen John Boccieri, Steve Driehaus, Zach Space, Charlie Wilson and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, time is of the essence. 1/11/10 Key Health Care Targets in Ohio By Chris Brock As rank-and-file members of Congress return to Washington this week, congressional leadership continues to grapple with major issues within the health care debate such as; the public option, funding for the bill (i.e. tax increases, fines and penalties), Medicaid expansion, Medicare cuts and the overall cost of reform. These issues, along with many others, must be reconciled in the next 10-14 days if Congress is going to pass a bill before the President’s State of the Union address. Such a short time frame exists because once deals have been struck the Congressional Budget Office will need roughly 10-14 days to score the bill before sending it back to legislative leaders for a final vote. While negotiations continue, it is important to note that several members of Congress from Ohio are considered “in play” in terms of their support or opposition to the bill. Those individuals include Congressmen John Boccieri, Steve Driehaus, Zach Space, Charlie Wilson and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. Unconstitutional Provisions in Health Care Bill? By Chris Brock With the holidays behind us, Congress is prepared to pick-up where they left off – moving quickly to pass national health care reform. After the U.S. Senate’s Christmas Eve vote to pass its health care bill, the U.S. House and Senate must combine the bills passed by each chamber through the conference committee process. What might be the most interesting development since the Senate’s Christmas Eve vote is the request by 13 attorneys general from across the country to pull out a provision in the Senate Bill that would provide Medicaid funding to Nebraska for new enrollees. The attorneys general claim the provision is unconstitutional and if left in the bill may force them to pursue legal action. As of now, the schedule for the conference committee has not been announced and there may never be a formal schedule since most of the negotiations will happen behind closed doors. It appears the members of the conference committee will be made up of key members of the committees responsible for writing the health care bills in the House and Senate.
Health Care for Christmas By Chris Brock Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse – except in the U.S. Senate. Before the sun came up on Christmas Eve Day, the Senate voted 60-39 to pass its health care bill. With the House having already passed a bill on November 7, both bills now move to a conference committee where key members of the House and Senate will negotiate to combine the two. While we know both chambers must accept or reject the report that is issued by the committee without making any changes, what we do not know is when exactly this will happen. Reports yesterday suggested the negotiations could creep into February, past the deadline originally set to have a bill to the President by the State of the Union address. No matter the timing, since both chambers must approve the conference committee’s report, Ohioans have one last opportunity to contact their legislators. This is crucial - especially in Ohio - where many representatives may be on the fence.
12/22/09 House vs. Senate By Chris Brock In the last 36 hours, the U.S. Senate has jumped some important hurdles on the way to passing its version of health care reform. After successfully navigating through two key procedural votes with the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward, it seems final passage in the Senate is a mere formality. Sometime on Christmas Eve, the U.S. Senate will approve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act leaving just one step left in the process. Because the U.S. House passed substantially different health care legislation, both bills must be merged in a House and Senate Conference Committee. This could prove to be contentious as members of the House and Senate have become very entrenched on different sides of certain issues. The committee is made up of key legislators from each chamber. They will be tasked with hashing out differences between the two bills and then issuing a conference report. The report must be approved by both chambers before becoming law. This will be the last chance to stop the bill and urge legislators to start over on more meaningful reforms. 12/18/09 On the Brink By Chris Brock Even with votes still in doubt, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nevada) decided last night to put into motion the complicated procedural process of passing the Senate’s health care bill by Christmas. In hopes of forcing the hand of a few remaining hold-outs within his caucus, Reid seems to be betting that if procedural votes start in just a couple days, undecided Senators will break his way. Without getting into the complicated voting rules of the U.S. Senate, several votes will be needed to actually pass the health care bill. The first vote on the bill would take place Monday morning, December 21 at approximately 1 a.m. The second vote would then occur on Tuesday, December 22 at 7 a.m. followed by the final vote on Wednesday, December 23 at 1 p.m. By announcing the timeline for final votes, Reid is going to either look very smart or overly confident come next week. If those few Senators still not committed to the bill do not break his way, the process could fall apart just in time for the holidays.
12/16/09 Pep Rally on the Hill By Chris Brock On Tuesday, President Obama met with U.S. Senate Democrats in an effort to rally the troops. After another announcement of a potential compromise on Monday, Senate leadership hopes they may finally be on the verge of reaching that coveted 60. Needing 60 votes in the Senate to pass health care reform, the White House and Senate leaders felt it was necessary to take out the oh-so briefly heralded Medicare buy-in compromise in order to appease Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Connecticut). But as President Obama stressed the historic ramifications of passing health care reform to Senate Dems, the fate of the bill was still in doubt. Sen. Ben Nelson (D- Nebraska) continues to demand new language in the bill further clarifying the limitations of taxpayer dollars going toward abortion procedures. And if that wasn't enough to test the already agitated Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nevada), Sen. Roland Burris (D- Illinois) proclaimed Monday that as a staunch supporter of a public option, his vote was far from secure. He even went so far as to say “I am committed to voting for a bill that achieves the goals of a public option: competition, cost savings and accountability, I will not be able to vote for lesser legislation that ignores those fundamentals.” While Burris' threat is probably just an attempt at getting some attention and a reminder to his party that he should not be ignored, it still demonstrates the difficulty Reid and his leadership team is having in rounding up 60 votes. Nonetheless, it appears likely the bill could come up for a final vote as early as next week. With final passage so close, rest assured, arms will be twisted to the breaking point in the coming days in order to lock-up those final few votes.
12/11/09 Deal or No Deal By Chris Brock In recent weeks, a group of 10 liberal and moderate senators have met behind closed doors in hopes of reaching a compromise on the controversial public option. Such a compromise is critical to winning over the 60 votes needed to pass health care legislation. But some of those senators closest to the negotiations are growing increasingly wary of a proposal that would potentially remove the public option from health care reform. While details were lacking, Democrats claimed on Tuesday they were on the verge of something historic. One detail of the compromise that we do know would allow Americans ages 55 to 64 to buy-in to Medicare. This, however, has proven contentious as critics claim it doesn’t make sense to put more people on an already sinking ship without reforming the current system – referring to Medicare’s dire financial future. Sens. Olympia Snow (R- Maine), Ben Nelson (D- Nebraska) and Joe Lieberman (I- Connecticut) – moderates who had promised to vote against a bill with a public option – are still not convinced Tuesday’s announcement is the right answer. While Senate leadership scrambles to come up with the votes they need, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office will take the next few days to evaluate the new proposal and determine what cost it will carry. This important cost analysis may determine whether the cost is reasonable enough to satisfy key moderates. Make or Break Week By Chris Brock After a relatively uneventful week of debate, the U.S. Senate starts week 2 looking to tackle some major issues. The most important will be the highly contentious public option. As liberals and conservatives within the democratic caucus have struggled to agree on what the public option should look like, non-stop negotiations took place over the weekend in an effort to find a compromise. Following those negotiations a new version of the public option may emerge later this week – and with it, potentially the fate of health care reform. If a proposal garnering 60 votes can be found, democrats will be just a few steps away from passing the most sweeping health care reform legislation ever. If not, Senate leadership faces a huge hurtle and will struggle to appease all of its members in order to pass the bill. No matter the outcome of the public option talks, it is important to remember the bill still creates new taxes, fees and mandates while doing nothing to truly reform our health care system. 12/3/09 Senate Debate Intensifies, Public Option Could Change By Chris Brock After months of anticipation the U.S. Senate began debate of its health care proposal Monday afternoon. As of this morning, after three days of heated debate, no votes have been cast. Four potential amendments to the bill are currently floating around, but none have been voted on because in order to vote, both parties must agree to hold a vote. That has not happened yet, but rumors are the first votes are scheduled for late this morning.
While the process has been slow, discussions are underway to offer a new version of the government run, public option. Currently, Senate leadership is trying to hammer out details of a more appealing public option that would appeal to moderates who are still concerned with the current proposal. A state “opt-in” provision could be one solution. Another would provide a fallback trigger allowing a public option only in states where private insurance reforms have failed. Details of a new public option proposal could be released as early as next week. So far, more than 1,000 messages have been sent to Sens. Brown and Voinovich regarding the Senate’s health care proposal.
The Debate Begins Today By Chris Brock Health care reform, months in the making, is today one step closer to reaching the finish line. With the Thanksgiving holiday behind us, the U.S. Senate begins debate on its $848 billion health care package. Unfortunately, for employers, employees and basically everyone in America, the Senate proposal is almost as bad as the House bill passed on November 7. At this point, we know the bill creates taxes, imposes fees and penalties and is riddled with mandates. That is why we must ACT NOW! Since November 4, when the Ohio Chamber launched a grassroots campaign to fight the current health care proposals, more than 1,700 messages have been sent to Ohio’s congressional delegation. Of those messages, more than 800 came from local chamber members. This is truly something to be proud of and was made possible thanks to the participation of those chambers in the Chamber Action Alliance. Hopefully December will produce an even higher response.
So what can we expect moving forward in the Senate? Right now it appears a possible vote will take place either right before Christmas or soon after. Senate leadership needs 60 votes to end debate and move forward with a final vote – 60 is exactly how many senators caucus with the democrats. Knowing not one Republican will vote with the democrats means they need every vote they can get. Currently, Senate leadership is scrambling to rectify a few issues that have bubbled up within their own caucus. Two of the main issues include taxpayer dollars going toward abortion procedures and the creation of a government run, public option. In the weeks ahead, I encourage you to stay engaged and stay tuned for any updates.
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