House Republicans Friday predicted that if the health care bill skips straight to the floor without a vote from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, it will fail.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the committee, said moderate Democratic Blue Dogs won’t put up with such a maneuver, which Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is threatening.
The bill is stalled in the committee because the Blue Dogs on the panel think it costs too much and punishes rural medical care. Waxman said he might pull the plug on committee action and send the bill straight to the floor.
“I predict that if that happens, that the bill will fail on a rule vote,” Barton said, referring to the procedural vote that must pass before the bill can be considered on the floor. ” I don’t believe the Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Blue Dog Democrats and the institutional Democrats in the House would vote to bypass the committee of primary jurisdiction.”
Barton stood beside two boxes of amendments Republicans would like to argue in the Energy committee. Barton said there are 15 additional boxes of amendments in the committee room, none of which would see the light of day if the bill goes straight to the House floor.
“The only true negotiations that have been held between Republicans and Democrats in the House on the health care package have been done in the open markup process,” Barton said. “So we hope Chairman Waxman and Speaker Pelosi will let there be a markup, and if there is, we stand prepared to offer these amendments plus many more to try to improve the package.”
Waxman argued Friday that there may be little choice but to move the bill to the floor, otherwise the deadlock might never end.
