Senate

Washington (AP) - After months of maneuvering, the Senate stands at the brink of a historic battle over health care with President Barack Obama and his allies on one side and Republicans, outnumbered but unflinching, on the other.

"Now it's America's turn, and this will not be a short debate," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, warned after Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled long-awaited legislation Wednesday night to extend coverage to 30 million more Americans and force insurance companies to take all comers.

"Higher premiums, tax increases and Medicare cuts to pay for more government. The American people know that is not reform," McConnell said...

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she expects the Senate to pass an overhaul of U.S. health care next month and President Barack Obama prefers taxing high-end medical plans to help pay for the revamp.

“The hope is there will be 60 votes mid-December to pass bills in Senate” before House and Senate leaders get to work on merging their legislation in a conference committee, Sebelius said today at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference in Washington. She didn’t say when she thought final legislation would reach President Obama...

Under pressure from the White House, Majority Leader Harry Reid says he plans to bring a health care reform package to the floor of the Senate next week, and his goal is to see it passed by the end of the year.

But he faces an uphill climb in getting the required 60 votes necessary to start debate.

First, Reid is awaiting final word from the Congressional Budget Office on costs and coverage implications of the still-secret bill he submitted more than two weeks ago...

Washington (CNN) -- Congress will miss President Obama's deadline to enact health care reform by the end of the year, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday.

Illinois' Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he hopes, at best, to pass the Senate's version of a health care bill by that time.

If the Senate manages to pass a bill, a congressional conference committee would need to merge the House and Senate proposals into a consensus version requiring final approval from each chamber before moving to Obama's desk to be signed into law.

Durbin's assessment came as former President Clinton made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to discuss the health care issue with Senate Democrats...

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects to bring legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system up for debate next week.

Reid told reporters today at the Capitol he believes the Senate can pass the measure by the end of the year. Asked whether he had the 60 votes needed to begin debate, he said, “I hope so.â€

Reid is trying to bridge differences in his chamber over whether the plan should include a new government-run insurance program, whether it should require employers to cover workers and how to pay for covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans. He’s also wading through contentious areas such as federal funding for abortion...

The Republican state lawmaker is running against former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in California for a chance to square off against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in the general election. He says his GOP opponent embraces big government policies that involve "more borrowed money that our children can't repay."

California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina last week gained the endorsements of eight Republican Senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Tom Coburn, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyl, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Olympia Snowe.

In doing so, the eight Senators looked past the more conservative candidate challenging Fiorina in the GOP primary - State Assemblyman Chuck Devore, who is a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army Retired Reserve, and was a Reagan White House appointee in the Pentagon.

DeVore says Fiorina believes in a different scope of government than he does.  read more »

Washington (AP) - Don't look for the Senate to quickly follow the House on health care overhaul.

A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate. They're locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of President Barack Obama's signature issue at stake.

If a government plan is part of the deal, "as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters...

WASHINGTON – Time growing short, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate still face key decisions if they are to achieve President Barack Obama's goal of passing legislation to remake the nation's health care system by year's end.

In the House, that means setting conditions under which the federal government would sell coverage in competition with private industry. The remaining disagreements among rank and file Democrats revolve largely around the fees to be paid doctors and hospitals under the plan, and whether they should be dictated by federal officials or established in negotiations.

And in the Senate, it means deciding whether legislation will give the government a role in the marketplace at all, and if so, what rights individual states would have in deciding whether to participate...

WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders in Congress scrambled Friday to round up votes for allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private industry as they struggled to finalize a health care bill that meets President Barack Obama's goals.

In a change in the Senate, long seen as hostile to the so-called public option, senior Democrats were considering including such a measure, officials said. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spent Friday calling and talking with wavering Democrats to test support for different versions of the plan.

A similar process was under way in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi was scratching for votes in favor of her preferred version of the so-called public option, even though opposition from moderates seemed to indicate that the votes weren't there...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life lawmakers who led the fight to stop the massive abortion funding in the Senate health care bills during committee consideration plan to reintroduce their amendments on the Senate floor.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee rejected the pro-life amendments during the consideration of the Baucus and Kennedy health care bills. The amendments were defeated on largely partisan votes with most Democrats voting against them and most Republicans voting for them.

Sen.  read more »