Posted on 07/29/2009 9:25:07 AM PDT by jazusamo
The Blue Dogs and House leaders have struck a deal to guarantee that the House will not vote on a healthcare bill before August, a leading Blue Dog said on Wednesday.
In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day, the Energy and Commerce Committee may be allowed to continue its markup of the healthcare bill this week even if an agreement has not been reached between Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven Energy and Commerce Committee Blue Dogs over the content of the bill.
Asked if House leaders had told Democrats that there will be no House vote on healthcare before Friday, Blue Dog Co-Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) said, “I don’t think [leaders have] made public statements to that regard, but my understanding is that that would be part of an agreement, if they actually do move forward with an Energy and Commerce markup that there will be no vote on the House floor until after Labor Day.”
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) – who has been deeply involved in negotiations between Waxman and the seven Blue Dogs – was not immediately available for comment through spokeswomen.
"There has been no official announcement on floor timing, but at this point, the odds are that we will not likely vote before we adjourn for August," a Democratic leadership aide said.
The Blue Dogs have not reached a “final agreement” with Waxman and leaders, despite meeting along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Md.) and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for over five hours on Tuesday.
But Waxman was rumored to be resuming the long-stalled markup of the House healthcare bill on Thursday, with the goal of completing the markup before the end of the week.
Waxman has called the Democrats on his committee to meet this afternoon.
Blue Dogs said they plan on continuing to talk to Waxman throughout the day even though the two sides still appear to be far apart on a number of issues.
“We’re continuing to talk,” said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the leading Blue Dog spokesman and one of the Energy and Commerce seven. “And we’re working, and we may have more news for you later today.”
But Ross and Herseth Sandlin hinted that they are prepared to have the markup resume even with significant daylight between them and Waxman.
“All I can say is that if he begins a markup without an agreement, we’re certainly prepared to move forward and offer our amendments,” Ross said.
"They’re looking to see if they can get language today based on some of the agreement that they may have found last night,” Herseth Sandlin said. “We won’t know what the details of the markup are until the committee works its will on the bill.”
Herseth Sandlin also made it clear that she believes the Blue Dogs have scored a major victory by getting leaders to back away from their goal of having the House vote on a healthcare bill before members return home for the month of August.
“We’ve achieved the victory of not having a vote on the House floor that will give every member a chance to digest what’s in the bill, whether it’s in a markup that occurs in Energy and Commerce or whether it’s as the bill exists right now,” she said. “It is because of the Blue Dog Coalition that there is no floor vote before the August break.”
They’ll wait for enough of the Blue Dogs to leave town (and ‘Pubs) then suddenly schedule a vote. Done it before, they’ll do it again. AND it gives the Blue Dogs cover with their constituents: “I was gonna vote against, but they scheduled the vote after I was already in the air. Not my fault, oh well.”
Let us stand and give a standing ovation of encouragement to the Blue Dog Democrats. It apparently bought us time.
Now let’s use it well.
I don't think so.
We all know how good Commie promises are.
Amen! If we get it.
Waxman was born too late. He would have been right at home standing next to Hitler. Get your Big Nose out of my wallet, Henry.
I hope we don’t get something even worse come September.
Rahm and Pelosi will ram in a 2AM deal.
If The R's are smart they will spend every day on the floor READING those 1000 pages to the American people.
Torches and pitchforks on 9/12 should send the message...
Birth certificate questions provide a double whammy.
“They’ll wait for enough of the Blue Dogs to leave town (and ‘Pubs) then suddenly schedule a vote”
I think the bill would first have to clear the committee before a floor vote. If Waxman/Pelosi try to bypass the Blue Dogs in the committee then I believe the Blue Dogs will all sprint in mass to DC to vote against the bill which would effectively destroy any chance for health care reform this year.
Now is the time to burn up the phone lines people!!!
Rush just said that he had a message from someone that they were about to begin markup and schedule a vote before leaving town — who is right here?
We can't trust half of the republicans. We certainly can't trust these democrats!
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