Senate Finance Committee Delays Health Reform Vote, Awaits Costs Estimates

Senate Finance Committee aides on Monday said that a vote on the committee's health reform bill -- previously scheduled for Tuesday -- would be delayed because panel members have not received a preliminary cost analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office, Reuters reports. The committee had anticipated the cost analysis on Monday, according to Reuters (Whitesides, Reuters, 10/5).

According to the Washington Post, the vote potentially could be delayed until next week because committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has promised panel members that they will have a "reasonable" amount of time to review the CBO report before the vote. The committee concluded its mark-up of the bill on Friday after seven days of debate (Murray/Wilson, Washington Post, 10/6).

The committee is expected to approve the bill largely along party line, Reuters reports. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will then authorize and oversee the process of merging the bill with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's bill (S 1679), which was passed over the summer. Three committee members have not announced how they will vote: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a key Republican vote that Democrats are counting on, and Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), two Democratic hold-outs (Reuters, 10/5).

Pelosi Hopeful for Thanksgiving Deadline

In an appearance Monday on "The Charlie Rose Show," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hopes lawmakers can deliver a reform bill to President Obama by Thanksgiving, Roll Call reports. "I would like to see us have this as a Thanksgiving present for the American people, but it will certainly be this year," Pelosi said. According to Roll Call, the Obama administration has been pushing a Thanksgiving deadline for reform to reach the White House since lawmakers returned from the August recess (Newmyer, Roll Call, 10/6).


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