Health Care Debate Continues Through Congressional Recess

The health care debate continues to dominate much of Congress's recess schedule and it is uncertain what the final legislation will look like.  The most controversial issue remains the creation of the government run public option, and its inclusion in any final bill will make passage in the Senate very difficult. As a result, the idea of passing the legislation outside of the normal process is gaining steam. A procedural maneuver in the Senate called budget reconciliation could be used by Democratic leaders to pass the most controversial portions of reform because the process limits debate time and amendments and lowers the threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51.  Due to the strings attached to the maneuver, many aspects of the Democratic bill would have to be stripped from the legislation. Thus, if Democrats used reconciliation they would have to pass additional legislation to pass aspects of reform that were not included in the reconciliation motion. There remains a possibility that the Senate Finance Committee can find a bipartisan compromise to comprehensive health care reform. However, if this lone committee is unable to do so, then Democrats will either try to pass reform without any Republican support, look toward making incremental changes or delay action until next year or later, which is the most unlikely outcome should the Committee fail to find a compromise.