Committee Health Care Vote Delayed
Grassley and others want more than just CBO report.
Compiled by staff
Published: Oct 7, 2009
The Senate Finance Committee may not vote on its health care reform proposal until next week, after the Government Accountability office reports on the bill's cost. Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., wants to give his committee members a reasonable amount of time to review the bill's price tag. The committee's vote is expected to be close. Passage could hinge on a handful of Senators who are waiting for the GAO report before they vote.
Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is one of the members of Committee who wants to insure both the Congressional Budget Office director and the chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation are involved in analyzing the health care bill.
Grassley thinks it is important that committee members have an opportunity to ask questions about the legislation's deficit impact within the ten-year budget window and beyond. President Obama has request that health care reform be revenue neutral over a ten-year period and reduce the growth of health care spending over the long run.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is citing some troublesome and unresolved issues in the Finance Committee's bill. Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are urging Congress to overcome its differences and get the job done.
Grassley thinks it is important that committee members have an opportunity to ask questions about the legislation's deficit impact within the ten-year budget window and beyond. President Obama has request that health care reform be revenue neutral over a ten-year period and reduce the growth of health care spending over the long run.
Republican Senators say the participation by the CBO and JCT officials is consistent with the chairman's commitments about time to review official cost estimates, which the chairman made in response to Republican senators' questions during last week's committee consideration of the chairman's draft legislation.
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