KC Health Care Reform

Following a very intense, passionate debate from both sides, the full House narrowly approved the Senate-passed healthcare reform bill by a vote of 219 to 212 at approximately 10:45 p.m. tonight. Thirty-four Democrats (Adler, Altmire, Arcuri, Barrow, Berry, Boren, Boucher, Bright, Chandler, Childers, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Edwards (TX), Herseth Sandlin, Holden, Kissell, Kratovil, Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, McMahon, Melancon, Minnick, Nye, Peterson, Ross, Shuler, Skelton, Space, Tanner, Taylor, Teague) joined all Republicans in voting against the Senate bill, which will be sent immediately to President Obama to be signed into law in a ceremony expected on Tuesday.

The House also approved the reconciliation bill (as amended by yesterday’s Manager’s Amendment) containing “fixes” to the Senate-passed bill by a vote of 220 to 211. Thirty-three Democrats joined all Republicans in voting against the proposal.

The passage comes following a very aggressive lobbying campaign by President Obama – including personal calls to key Members, the postponement of his scheduled trip overseas, a series of high profile speeches to build public support, and yesterday’s meeting with the full Democratic caucus – to win over reluctant House Democrats. In addition, the announcement by the President that he will sign an executive order upholding the ban on the use of federal funding for abortion appeared to help pave the way for Democratic Leadership to gain the votes of Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) and the key group of Democrats concerned about the abortion language in the Senate bill.

A GOP motion to recommit, which would have inserted the so-called “Stupak abortion language” into the bill, failed on a 199 to 232 vote. Had this motion passed, it would have in effect prevented the bill from passage.

After the Senate bill is signed into law, the reconciliation provisions will go to the Senate. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) released a letter (without signatures) indicating support for making changes to the Senate bill using “an up or down majority vote” to help ease concerns of wavering House Democrats prior to today’s floor vote.

However, today Senate GOP leaders released a statement indicating that Senate Republicans were trying to set up a meeting with Senate Democrats and the Senate Parliamentarian to discuss a point of order that could – if approved by the Parliamentarian – derail the reconciliation bill in the Senate. GOP leaders accused Democrats of avoiding the meeting – a charge denied by Senate Democrats – until after today’s House vote so as not to lose the support of House Democrats opposed to passing the Senate bill without changes. We expect the reconciliation bill to face numerous “Byrd rule” challenges and amendments from Senate Republicans.