Democrats begin finalizing health care bill with key issues still unresolved

On Capitol Hill, discussions regarding health care resume today. Democratic Leadership is meeting with President Obama this evening to figure OUT a way to move forward. One option lawmakers are discussing is to bypass the traditional conference committee. One progressive member of Congress calls that “undemocratic.” FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

TRANSCRIPT
After a short break for Christmas and New Year's, Democratic leadership is back to work on health care, hoping to pass the bill as soon as possible. House and Senate democratic leaders are meeting at the White House Tuesday evening.

Now that both the House and the Senate have passed different versions of the bill, they both must pass the same version.

The process is often done through a conference committee, made up of numerous members of each body.

But, it is likely that this stage will be skipped because of the lengthy process of appointing committee members and passing a conference report.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office says they don’t have a choice because Republicans say they will do everything they can to slow down the process.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Dennis Miller’s radio show that he’s going to “fight it till the bitter end.”

But House Democrats could be a hindrance to this plan.

Representative Barbara Lee of Oakland, CA.

“We have to have a conference. It’s outrageous if we don’t have a conference committee. I think that really subverts the process, it’s not democratic.”

Lee is one of dozens of members of the House that prefer the House-passed bill, which includes a public option and more generous subsidies for low- and middle-income people to buy health insurance.

“We worked too hard in the house to get a public option in the bill, we worked too hard to get our…tax surcharge on the wealthy and we worked very  hard and the people supported what we did in the House.”

The House narrowly passed its version and the Senate’s vote tally was even closer, with no room for a single defection.

If the conference committee is by-passed, House and Senate leaders would negotiate a bill that could pass both the House and the Senate.

But Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, George Miller, said House rank and file Democrats will have input on the negotiations.

“One of the things we’ve never done is bypass our caucus. Our caucus has said time and again this is the most inclusive leadership they’ve ever experienced, whether it was on the energy bill, the education bill, the stimulus or the health care bill. That’s the way the Speaker runs its leadership, with full input and full explanation.”

Meanwhile, a television ad has been launched to influence negotiations to include a public option and provisions to ensure health care is truly affordable. The ad will run on CNN and MSNBC nationwide.

Jacki Schechner is with Health Care for America Now, the group who launched the ad campaign.

“What we’re advocating is when that process takes place where Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid and the President come together and take a look at what‘s ahead of them and they have the Senate bill and the House bill and many provisions that we prefer are in the house bill. So that they take a look at the Senate bill and say ‘What can we change within this framework that will make it look more like the House bill?’”

After Democratic Leadership meets with the President Tuesday, Speaker Pelosi will meet with members of her caucus Thursday.

Their goal is to pass health care before the President's State of the Union address.