"Steny Hoyer: House Must Move First On Health Care"

[Clio the Leo]

Steny Hoyer: House Must Move First On Health Care
Posted: 02-28-10 11:25 AM

Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Sunday that the House must move on a package of fixes to the health care bill before the Senate can act.

House and Senate Democratic leaders have been arguing for weeks over which chamber should jump first: House leaders say their members don't trust that the Senate will follow. Senate leaders argue that for technical, legislative reasons, the House must pass something before the Senate can act.

Hoyer came around to the Senate view on Sunday. On Friday evening, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel came to the Capitol to hash out health care strategy, with several senior aides speculating that he would push Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to go first.

"Whether we're willing or not, we have to go first if we're going to correct some of the things that the House disagrees with. Not correct--change, so we can reach agreement. The House will have to move first on some sort of corrections or reconciliation bill, which follows a process that the Republicans followed 16 out of the last 22 times it's been done, for very major pieces, including their tax cuts, which were really more dollar value" than health care, Hoyer said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/28/steny-hoyer-house-must-mo_n_479886.html

[flpoljunkie]

1. Does not preclude Senate giving assurance to the House they have 50 votes for reconciliation patch