Step 2: Committees Hold Hearings / Draft Legislation
(this step has been completed)
Congress, and especially the relevant Congressional committees, are considering the President's health care proposal/principles for reform and beginning the process of formulating and moving legislation through Congress. Congressional leadership, including Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy, Steny Hoyer, Henry Waxman, Pete Stark, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, have indicated that a health care bill will be drafted and passed out of committee by this summer.
As the beginning of the formal legislative process, in this step the relevant committees in both the House and Senate (see graphic above) are currently intensifying their efforts to receive input on various aspects of health care reform through formal hearings and informal meetings. There may be an effort to conduct "field hearings" in locations across the United States as well, as the Obama administration has been doing with its "Regional Health Forums." During this process, various experts and leaders from all sides of the issues have the opportunity to present their ideas to the Congressional committees and to the Congressional leadership.
The committees, taking this input into consideration, have begun to draft legislation, with the goal of passing this legislation out of their committees by the summer. We expect markup to happen in the committees in June, and to have a bill ready to be considered by the House and the Senate by late June or early July.
(As with other steps in the legislative process, the sequence of events may not be completely sequential: one committee may be holding hearings, another taking votes on particular provisions, while a third is re-engaging on a second set of hearings on a second set of issues.)
Where We Are Now
On Tuesday, February 24th, President Obama addressed both houses of Congress, saying specifically health care reform "cannot wait another year." On Wednesday, February 25th, the Senate Finance Committee kicked off the formal legislative process by holding a hearing on health care. And then on Thursday, February 26th, President Obama released his budget proposal, calling for $634 billion to be set aside for health care reform. President Obama then held a "health care summit" at the White House, where he reiterated his support for health care reform this year.
Though the timing may eventually change, Chairman Max Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee has called for his committee to mark up "a comprehensive health care reform bill" in June (with hearings up until then) and have it on the President's desk this year. It is our understanding that the Senate HELP Committee is committed to the same timeline and still considering working with Finance on one bill. The Chairmen of the relevant committees in the House, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and George Miller, have sent a letter to President Obama saying they are coordinating their efforts and expect to have a bill out of their committees and on the House floor "before the August recess."
The timeline for legislation looks to be shaping up as follow:
- April – May: Committee hearings and bill drafting. The three committees in the house have said they will work from one starting point, while the two Senate committees will work seperately on bills.
- June: Health-related committee markup, amendments, and votes on health reform legislation
- July: Health care bill introduced in the House and Senate, and each body, respectively, passes health reform legislation. (The three committees in the House have pledged to have a health reform bill on the House floor before the August recess.)
- August: House and Senate meet to create a single version of health reform legislation in the form of a “conference committee report”
- September: Action by House and Senate to pass health reform legislation (“conference report”)
The President's Budget
President Obama has laid out $634 billion for health care in his budget proposal as a down payment on health care reform. This is a start; additional funding will be needed and we're working with Congress to match the President's historic commitment to real health care reform. Making investments in health care now is the only way to achieve savings in the longer-term. We are counting on Congress to make health care reform happen this year.
On April 1st, Health Care for America Now sent a letter to Congress [pdf] expressing support for the budget passed out of committee in the House. On April 2nd, both the House (roll call) and the Senate (roll call) passed a Budget Resolution. After the April recess, the House and Senate will combine their different versions of the Budget Resolution into a single document, and, by the end of April, are looking to pass a joint Budget Resolution.
The key health reform-related provision is the creation of a reserve fund that provides the Congress with the flexibility and authority to draft and enact legislation achieving a guarantee of quality, affordable health care that we can all count on. In the Budget Resolutions being acted on by Congress, they opted to not include the specific funding mechanisms identified in the President's budget but to provide broad flexibility and authority to enact health care reform. Both the House and the Senate Budget Resolutions included a "reserve fund" to make sure health care reform has adequate funding.
Rules were included in the Budget Resolution that prevents a "filibuster," so a minority of Senators will not be able to hold up passage of health care reform. (We sent a letter to leaders in Congress expressing our views. [pdf]) On April 29th, the final budget passed both the House (roll call) and the Senate (roll call) and contains provisions to protect health care reform from being blocked by a minority of Senators, as well as a deadline of October 15th when those provisions will kick in.
With the passage of the budget, the stage will be set for moving forward with comprehensive health care reform legislation.
