It's not over for the House of Representatives. They're going to have to take another vote on the reconciliation package. The Republicans found some procedural issues with the current bill. Ryan Grim reports:
Senate Republicans succeeded early Thursday morning in finding two flaws in the House-passed health care reconciliation package. Neither is of any substance, but the Senate parliamentarian informed Democratic leaders that both are in violation of the Byrd Rule.So, the parliamentarian ruled with the Republicans. The bill is now different, so the House will have to vote again.
One is related to Pell Grants and the other makes small technical corrections. Why they're in violation of the Byrd Rule doesn't matter; the upshot is that Republicans will succeed in at least slightly altering the legislation, which means that the House is once again required to vote on it. With no substantial changes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should have little problem assembling the same coalition of 220 Democrats who passed the measure Sunday night. That's already four more than the minimum 216 required for passage.
The whole point of this process was to prevent any changes so the House would be done. But, now that it's different, Ryan asks if the public option is an option:
But the ruling might give Democrats another option -- the public one.Now, that would be showing some boldness and leadership. If it's going to happen, some Senate Democrat will have to make it happen today.
Democratic leadership no longer has to worry that additional amendments would send it back to the House, since it must return to the lower chamber regardless. The Senate is now free to put to the test that much-debated question of whether 50 votes exist for a public option. Democrats could also elect to expand Medicare or Medicaid, now that they only need 50 votes in the Senate and the approval of the House.
