Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to release details of his health care reform bill to members of the Democratic caucus on Wednesday, setting up a possible weekend vote on cloture on the motion to proceed, CongressDaily reports. According to Reid spokesperson Jim Manley, Reid expects to have the final Congressional Budget Office scores of the bill before a 5 p.m. meeting with the caucus.
Reid sent the bill to CBO for scoring more than three weeks ago, and senate leaders have been working to ensure that the bill costs less than $900 billion and is fully paid for, goals set forth by President Obama, CongressDaily reports (Edney/Friedman, CongressDaily, 11/18). Several senior Democratic aides who have reviewed the CBO data said that Reid's bill would cost less than its counterpart in the House (HR 3962), which was approved last week. The data also indicate that Reid's bill would lower the federal deficit over the long term. Reid said, "Of all the bills we've seen, it'll be the best: saves more money, is more protective of Medicare, is a bill that's good for the American people" (Murray/Montgomery, Washington Post, 11/18).
On Tuesday, Reid said he feels "cautiously optimistic" that Democrats will have the 60 votes required to cut off a Republican filibuster on the motion to advance debate on the bill. However, some moderate Democrats have said they are not sure how they will vote on cloture because they have not seen Reid's final bill and are concerned about the inclusion of a public health insurance plan option (CongressDaily, 11/18).
In an effort to court votes, Democratic leaders have been focusing on three moderate Democrats -- Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.). According to the Washington Post, Nelson is insisting that language restricting the use of federal funds for abortion services in a proposed health insurance exchange be included in the Senate bill (Washington Post, 11/18). Such language was included in the House health reform bill through an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). The amendment would prohibit the public plan option from covering abortion services. It also would prevent people who receive federal subsidies from purchasing private plans that cover such services. Some antiabortion-rights senators have insisted that Stupak's language be included in the final Senate bill, and some believe that the language would be necessary to attract the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.
However, the addition of Stupak's language in the Senate bill could start a battle within the Democratic caucus, and abortion-rights groups are working to block the language from being included, The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room" reports. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan in an e-mail to supporters encouraged them to call their senators and express their opposition to Stupak's language. In the e-mail, Keenan referenced remarks made by Stupak last week, when he said that abortion-rights advocates are "playing with fire." Keenan wrote in the e-mail's subject line, "yup, we're playing with fire." She wrote in the e-mail, "The man behind the ban passed in the House, Rep. Bart Stupak, is using his victory to embolden anti-choice senators," adding, "If Rep. Stupak wins, women lose. If we win, women win. It's that clear cut" (Fabian, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 11/17).
During an appearance on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday, Stupak said that between 10 and 20 antiabortion-rights Democrats would vote against a final health reform bill if his language is removed or weakened. Stupak said that Senate Democrats are "not going to take [the language] out," adding that "if they do, health care will not move forward" (Zimmermann, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 11/17). Stupak also appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews," where he said that his goal is to keep current federal restrictions on abortion coverage in reform legislation. "We do not use federal dollars to subsidize abortions, and we do not use federal dollars to subsidize health insurance plans that provide abortion coverage," he said (Matthews, "Hardball with Chris Matthews," MSNBC, 11/17).
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday said the House would not approve a health reform compromise that does not include Stupak's language, criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) decision to allow a vote on the amendment. Boehner said, "This was a sham vote in the House on a very serious issue," adding that Pelosi "only allowed the vote to occur because she absolutely had to" (Hooper, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 11/17).
Although both sides of the debate are threatening to block a final reform bill, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on Tuesday said that a compromise crafted from Stupak's amendment and an amendment he proposed during committee markup likely will appear in the final version of the bill. "At the end of the day, we're going to have a compromise that everybody's going to be able to live with, and we'll get health care reform," Ryan said. He added that he thinks the Senate and the House will "be able to work it out," adding, "The bottom line to me is that this health reform package is a pro-life issue. The bill as a whole is a pro-life bill, and we have to keep that in mind as we negotiate some of these tumultuous rapids" (O'Brien, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 11/17).
Abortion-Rights Groups, Congressional Dems at Odds Over Abortion Coverage Issue
In related news, Politico on Tuesday examined the frustration felt by many abortion-rights advocates over the inclusion of Stupak's amendment in the House health reform bill. According to Politico, the groups "are in an angry mood" with Stupak, Pelosi and House Democrats who voted for the amendment in order to advance the bill (Thrush, Politico, 11/17).
Catholic Bishops Reaffirm Position on Abortion Coverage, Health Reform
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during its annual fall meeting reaffirmed its opposition to health care reform legislation that includes federal funding for abortion services and defended its lobbying efforts to block such language in current bills, Roll Call reports. In a statement issued Tuesday, USCCB President Cardinal Francis George said, "In the national discussion on how to provide the best kind of health care, we bishops do not claim or present ourselves as experts on health care policy. Our focus is on the reality of those families with children, the poor and the elderly, the mother carrying a child in her womb, those with limited or no means of access to doctors."
Roll Call reports that the statement comes as liberal Democrats continue to push the Obama administration to keep Stupak's language out of final health reform legislation. On Nov. 10, nearly 100 House Democrats who support abortion rights sent a letter to Obama that read, "We believe that women should have access to a full range of reproductive health care." Health reform "must not be misused as an opportunity to restrict women's access to reproductive health services," they wrote, adding that the Stupak amendment "represents an unprecedented restriction on women's access to health care coverage of reproductive services" (Murray, Roll Call, 11/18).
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