Pelosi Says Federal Health Care Bills Are Dead
Jan. 21, 2010 – Two days after Republican Scott Brown upset early favorite and Democratic Party candidate Martha Coakley for the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat held for decades by the late Edward Kennedy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi essentially told reporters the health care bills approved by the House and Senate are dead.
With Brown’s victory, Senate Republicans now have the critical 41st vote necessary to prevent Democrats from blocking filibuster attempts on highly controversial health care reform measures. Some Congressional Democrats suggested the House simply could vote to approve the Senate version with no amendments and send it to President Barack Obama for signing.
But Pelosi today told a group of reporters that she does not have the votes necessary to approve the Senate’s version of national health care reform, which does not restrict federal funding of abortions to the same extent as the measure approved in the House. The President previously wanted to have health care reform legislation signed into law before his Jan. 27 State of the Union Address. Brown’s victory means Obama won’t have a bill to sign.
Part of Brown’s successful platform is a campaign promise to vote against current health care reform measures, which propelled the Republican upstart to victory in a state traditionally leaning toward Democrats. But while Brown’s win means Senate Democrats no longer have free reign to impose their will on the upper chamber of Congress, internal opposition from other Democrats is stopping Pelosi from imposing her will in the House of Representatives.
“I know leadership has flowed with the idea over the weekend that let’s just take the Senate bill and just vote on it in the House floor. I bet it wouldn’t get a hundred votes,” Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) told the Fox Business Network yesterday. Stupak heads a coalition of moderate House Democrats opposed to federal funding of abortions, which the Senate version would allow.
“Members are very upset about the Senate bill … especially when it looked like states were paid off for that 60th vote,” Stupak explained. “Have we relegated the legislative body to who can get the best deal? People should have been able to put their vote up based on policy, not on what did I get for my state. And that really soured the American people and House members. We’re not willing to take that Senate bill – that Nebraska’s guy’s special deal or Louisiana or Florida or whatever.”
Another option Democrats have considered is to create a compromise measure requiring only a simple majority of 51 votes for approval in the Senate. But without 60 votes to stop a likely Republican filibuster, Senate Democrats most likely would not be able to call for a vote to approve or disapprove a potential compromise measure.