By Frank James

House Democratic leaders are still hoping to have a vote on their health-care overhaul legislation Saturday night but said Friday the high-profile vote could slip to Sunday or even next week as they try to secure the 218 votes needed to pass the bill and deal with obstacles Republicans could throw in the path.

Complicating the path to the needed 218 votes are negotiations over the exact abortion language that moderate and anti-abortion Democrats want in the legislation.

President Barack Obama had planned to visit Capitol Hill today to personally lobby House Democrats to line up behind the bill. But he delayed his visit because of the Ft. Hood Army Base shootings and also because the schedule for the House vote had slipped.

Gibbs told reporters Friday:

The schedule, as of now, has him going tomorrow. Obviously the events of the past few hours have changed schedules, and the president preferred to go slightly closer to the vote, which put it at tomorrow.

An excerpt from CQ.com:

(House Majority Leader Steny) Hoyer said he will bring the House back on Sunday afternoon, and on Monday and Tuesday before the Nov. 11 Veterans' Day holiday to get the job done. "What I have said to people is we will consider this to its conclusion," he said.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also sounded an optimistic tone, saying the measure was on track for a floor vote Saturday. "We will come to the floor with great pride . . . with historic legislation," Pelosi said.
Still, Pelosi and Hoyer are still trying to work out abortion language in the bill (HR 3962), they said. Negotiators are trying to find a compromise that would enshrine in law the so-called Hyde amendment that has banned federal funding for abortion each year since the 1970s except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.
The effort has proven elusive, as up to 40 Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., say they will oppose the bill--possibly dealing it a fatal blow--unless the language in the measure goes further and bars any federally subsidized insurance plan from covering abortions, including any public plan set up to compete with private insurers.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a lead role in backing strong anti-abortion language in the pending bill (HR 3962), and Hoyer said leaders are reaching out to the clerics.

categories: Congress

2:41 - November 6, 2009

What is this?

Share