It’s not quite dead yet! Please read this if you want to help save this reform:
Leading Democrats in the House still insist that “all options are on the table” to move ahead on health care. But for the first time since last Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts, it’s clear that they’re coalescing around the most widely discussed option: moving ahead with the Senate bill once it’s clear that it will be changed through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process. Before they can move ahead, they need the Senate to make some real headway on their end of the bargain–and they’re not getting the signs they need.
“I thought we could get the votes in the House to pass the [Senate] bill if fixes to the Senate bill can be done,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told reporters today.
“That would be a good option as far as I’m concerned,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), leader of the House progressives’ health care task force. “I could support it. Reconciliation. Majority rule.”…
The hang up, they now say, is not on their end, but that they first need a high sign from the Senate that the two chambers can work in lockstep.
Unfortunately, our local Northfield Republican Representative won’t be of any help, but I urge each of you to call and/or email our two Democratic MN Senators, and ask them to actively fight for a side bill that will allow the House to pass the Senate HCR bill as-is, and render the 60-vote filibuster rule irrelevant.
I’m told that calling is better, and faxing a letter is best. I recommend doing all of the above.
Al Franken, DC Office
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5641
http://franken.senate.gov/contact/
Amy Klobuchar, DC Office
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
phone: 202-224-3244
fax: 202-228-2186
http://klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm
Time is of the essence.
Throw Another Dead Blog on the Fire 