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Government
& Public Affairs Update
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Government &
Public Affairs Team
Reginald M. Turner
John
Van Fossen, Practice Group Leader
Lucius A. Vassar
Chris Wagner
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Democrats Forced to Revise Timeline
for Health Care Reform Legislation
With the
Senate openly conceding it will not produce a bill before the
President's August 7 goal and Democratic Leadership in the House
unwilling to bypass the Energy and Commerce Committee to bring the
bill directly to the floor, the earliest Democrats will have health
care reform legislation on the floor of either chamber will likely be
September.
A group of Republican and Democratic Senators on the Senate Finance
Committee has been in negotiations to produce a bipartisan bill that
the Committee and full Senate can support. The negotiations are
dragging on longer than anticipated but the legislation is starting
to take shape, although negotiators are quick to point out that
nothing has been finalized and that a deal is not imminent.
Yesterday, one of the Senators participating in the Finance
discussions, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), confirmed that the group
has ruled out including an employer mandate and a government-run
public option. Instead, the bill would likely include a
requirement for businesses with 50 or more employees to contribute to
the cost of tax credits for eligible workers in an exchange.
"We want to make sure [employees] continue to access that
coverage through their employers, " Snowe said. "We
don't want to undermine that or create a perverse incentive where
employers drop their coverage because their employees could
potentially get subsidies through the exchange, for example."
If a compromise is reached within the Committee and the final
legislation takes such a form, it would stand in stark contrast from
the bill the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
Committee approved on a party-line vote on July 15, which includes
individual and employer mandates and a public option.
Senate Republicans are pessimistic that the legislative process will
yield a health care reform package that they can support. Many
have wondered how a moderate bill out of the Finance Committee can
survive after merging with the HELP bill and a conference with a
potentially liberal House bill. The three Republican Senators
in the Finance negotiations have sought assurances from Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that the Finance legislation will
be treated as the primary Senate floor vehicle, but Reid has not yet
made a decision.
Nevertheless, a deal seems near in Finance and its Chairman, Senator
Max Baucus (D-MT), has assured Reid that the Committee will begin to
mark up a health care bill before the Senate adjourns on August 7.
In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Chairman Henry Waxman
(D-CA) is trying to strike a deal with seven Blue Dog Democrats on
that Committee that would allow a markup to move forward
tomorrow. Blue Dog Democrats emerged from discussions with the
Chairman this afternoon but did not indicate what their final
position on the bill will be. They indicated that among other
cost cutting measures proposed, Waxman offered to reduce the
subsidies that would be provided to lower-income Americans. Under the
current bill, anyone making four times the poverty level would be
eligible for government assistance in purchasing insurance. However,
it is unclear whether Waxman's overtures will be enough to gain
the support of the deficit-focused group. Regardless of what
happens in the Committee this week, floor debate on the eventual bill
will almost certainly be delayed until September.
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If you have
any questions concerning these issues, please contact Chris Wagner at
202.772.0924 or cwagner@clarkhill.com.
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To find out
more about Clark Hill and our Government & Public Affairs
Practice Group, visit clarkhill.com
or call 800.949.3124
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