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Senate Passes Health Care 'Fixes,' Returns Package to House

   Paula Wolfson | Capitol Hill 25 March 2010
   Senate  Finance  Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus speaks at a health
   care reform news conference on on Capitol Hill, 25 Mar 2010

Photo: AP

   Senate  Finance  Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus speaks at a health
   care reform news conference on on Capitol Hill, 25 Mar 2010

   The  U.S.  Congress is wrapping up work on legislation to fix problems
   with  the  health  care reform bill President Barack Obama signed into
   law  on  Tuesday.   The Senate approved the corrections measure along
   party   lines   on   Thursday  and  sent  it  back  to  the  House  of
   Representatives for one last vote.
   With Vice President Joe Biden presiding, the Senate cast its last vote
   related to health care reform.
   "On  this  vote,  there are 56 yeas, 43 nays.  The bill as amended is
   passed," Biden declared.
   Two days after President Obama signed the health care reform bill into
   law,  Congress  has all but wrapped up work on a set of "fixes" to the
   legislation.
   Republicans  continued  their  unified opposition to the plan they say
   unnecessarily  broadens the federal government's role in health care.Â
   In the Senate, they tried to kill the reconciliation bill by demanding
   votes on dozens of amendments.
   Lamar Alexander of Tennessee spoke for members of his party:
   "This has been a debate filled with tension, good intentions and a lot
   of  hard  work.   And  our  political  parties  have  come  to vastly
   different  conclusions,"  he  said.   "The president and the majority
   have  said  this is an historic occasion.  I agree.  But I agree, as
   do most of us, that it is an historic mistake," he said.
   In  the  end, Senate Republicans were able to delay, but not stop, the
   legislation.
   They   uncovered   two  clauses  in  the  bill  that  run  counter  to
   Congressional  budget  rules.   The bipartisan Senate parliamentarian
   agreed.
   Senate  Democratic  leaders  said  the objectionable language would be
   removed.   They said that once the Senate approved the bill, it would
   then have to go back to the House for one last vote.
   "Of  all  the  things that they could have sent back, this is the most
   benign and easily fixed," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
   The  language  dropped  by  the  Senate  did not even relate to health
   care.   It dealt with a provision pertaining to grants for low income
   college  students  that  was  added  to the health care reform bill by
   Democrats.

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