Last week, key legislators and staff began to trickle back to Washington from Christmas break to begin the process of resolving differences between the House and Senate versions health care reform.
It became clear last week that Congress will not utilize the traditional, formal conference committee process for these negotiations. Instead, the House and Senate Democratic leadership will attempt to iron out key differences on issues that have previously divided the Caucus, such as the overall financing of the measure, the potential creation of a government-run public plan option, public financing of abortion services, the structure of an employer mandate to provide coverage and the structure of health insurance exchanges.
Major pieces of legislation are often reconciled without going through the conference process; it is a fairly common practice no matter which party is in power. Examples of recent major bills that bypassed the conference process include the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (economic stimulus bill) signed by President Obama last February and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP Act) signed by President Bush in 2008. Essentially, the House and Senate simply need to agree to amend their respective pieces of legislation so that the two measures contain identical language before being sent to the President. Because it can take several back-and-forth rounds between the two chambers to get an identical bill, the process is sometimes referred to in Washington as amendment ping-pong.
No matter what process is used, the Democratic leadership needs to keep together a coalition of 60 votes in the Senate and 218 in the House to pass a final bill, and the unified GOP opposition still holds some procedural cards (particularly in the Senate). While a merged bill can proceed to the Senate floor as a privileged document with only 51 votes, the final bill can be filibustered and 60 votes will be required to end debate and ensure final passage. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have publicly expressed optimism that they will have enough votes.
The goal appears to be to have a final bill to President Obama for signature prior to his State of the Union address. Typically, the State of Union address is given by the President to Congress on the last Tuesday in January, but this is a tradition, not a requirement. President Obama’s address has yet to be scheduled and may instead be held in early February.
