Congress returns to full calendar, fast pace
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
July 6, 2009
The clock will really start ticking on health care reform when Congress returns this week.
While there are divergent views among Democrats over how to accomplish a sweeping overhaul bill, one thing the party seems to agree on is that if it is not done fast, it might never get done. The Democrats are using a similar, if not slightly slower approach, with an energy and climate change bill. Even as senators wrangle with health care in committees in the coming week, global warming will be debated in the halls and private offices of the Senate as lawmakers rush to complete a historically large to-do list before the August break.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced that the Senate was "on the brink" of agreeing on a health care reform plan, but he must first find a way in the next five weeks to meld his proposal, which would create a massive government-run health insurance option, with a bill being written by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would put in place a non-governmental health insurance cooperative. The Baucus plan is the Senate's only hope for creating a bipartisan bill because Republicans will not back a government-run option. Baucus plans to begin drafting the bill in committee in the coming weeks.
The House and Senate are scrambling to pass a health care bill by Aug. 7, when Congress adjourns for a monthlong recess. That's because they need September to come to a House-Senate compromise in time to meet an October deadline set by President Barack Obama, who fears a backlash at the 2010 polls if there is no health care reform.
"Frankly, the longer it takes, the harder it is going to be," said University of California, Berkeley, political scientist Jacob Hacker. "They need to build off the momentum and put it through before the recess."
Hacker said that in the Senate, "the difficult task is reconciling the two versions that are coming out of the two committees."
And that's just health care.
Obama wants his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, on the bench by October. Senate confirmation hearings are set to begin July 13 and could be contentious, with Republicans hoping to slow down the process and pledging to grill Sotomayor on speeches and rulings they say demonstrate bias.
Obama and fellow Democrats are also anxious to pass a huge energy reform bill that is at least similar to the one that passed the House last month. That bill proposed a cap-and-trade system that would charge climate fees for industry. The House proposal, which passed by a slim margin, will be much harder to move through the Senate because many centrist Democrats oppose a cap-and-trade system.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for example, "generally opposes a cap-and-trade scheme such as that passed by the House," said her spokesman, Aaron Saunders. "She believes that there are alternative approaches to curbing emissions that will not devastate the economy and cause significant job loss."
