What is the process from moving the bill past the committee stage to the full senate?

[Cant trust em]

After the senate finance committee takes its vote. Where do we go from there?

[TayTay]

1. Ahm, it's a bit complicated

Health care reform was referred to 2 committees of the US Senate, per http://tinyurl.com/yztbyv5">Rule 17 (XVII) of the Standing Rules of the Senate. To wit:

3. (a) Upon motion by both the majority leader or his designee and the minority leader or his designee, proposed legislation may be referred to two or more committees jointly or sequentially. Notice of such motion and the proposed legislation to which it relates shall be printed in the Congressional Record. The motion shall be privileged, but it shall not be in order until the Congressional Record in which the notice is printed has been available to Senators for at least twenty-four hours. No amendment to any such motion shall be in order except amendments to any instructions contained therein. Debate on any such motion, and all amendments thereto and debatable motions and appeals in connection therewith, shall be limited to not more than two hours, the time to be equally divided between, and controlled by, the majority leader and the minority leader or their designees.

(b) Proposed legislation which is referred to two or more committees jointly may be reported only by such committees jointly and only one report may accompany any proposed legislation so jointly reported.

(c) A motion to refer any proposed legislation to two or more committees sequentially shall specify the order of referral.

And so a two-headed snake was born. Health Care reform legislation was given to two Senate Committees, HELP and Finance. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), under the late Sen. Kennedy and with markup sessions under Senator Dodd, actually produced a bill. This is a summary from http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s1679/show">OpenCongress on that bill, S. 1679:

This is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's (HELP) health care bill, approved by the committee on July 15, 2009. It seeks to ensure that all Americans have health insurance through a combination of consumer protections, market reforms and mandates. Like the House bill, this bill would put in place a public option to compete with private insurers, require most employers to provide insurance or pay a penalty and require individuals who don't get insurance though their job to purchase their own (with new government subsidies, if eligible). Insurance companies would no longer be able to deny coverage for an individual based on existing conditions. A complete outline can be read in this pdf from the committee.

Once the Senate Finance Committee has completed the mark-up of their health care bill, the two Senate bills will be reconciled and brought the the floor for consideration.

Okay, still with me? Sen. Dodd has decided NOT to continue chairing the HELP Committee and instead will stay on as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee. So, Sen. Tom Harkin, (D-IA) is now chair of HELP. He has submitted S. 1679 to the Senate and had it put on the http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s1679:">legislative calendar:

Latest Major Action: 9/17/2009 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 161.

Senator Baucus has not yet reported his bill out of committee and it is not yet scheduled on the floor. Once it is, the two committees have to get together and iron out ONE bill. So, there is still a chance for the Public Option, because it is a legal part of the HELP bill and was duly voted out by a majority of the Senators on the HELP committee and submitted to the Senate.

Clear?