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Roll Call
(1/6, Pierce, Koffler, subscription required) reports,
"President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to boost the White
House's involvement in healthcare reform negotiations as the
House and Senate seek to craft a final bill that can pass
Congress this winter." According to a "senior Democratic
source," the President "also offered to be more involved in
aiding Congressional leaders in setting the legislative agenda
in this crucial election year."
In order to help on healthcare
reform, "the White House will convene a meeting as early as
Wednesday with House and Senate healthcare staff to begin
working out issues ahead of lawmaker negotiations next week,"
Politico's (1/5, Brown) "Live
Pulse" blog explained. The decision came following a meeting
between Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Tuesday.
Reuters
House, Senate leaders agree to bypass conference.
Also at the meeting, House and Senate
leaders "formally agreed to bypass a bicameral conference
committee to merge two healthcare bills, and have opted to
instead 'ping-pong' the Senate bill over to the House and back
again, according to House leadership aides,"
The Hill (1/6, Allen,
subscription required) reports. "The decision was made to scrap
a conference committee out of concern that Republicans in both
the House and the Senate would employ a series of procedural
delaying tactics, only serving to delay the inevitable and
frustrate the majority, aides said."
The AP
In a separate story,
The Hill (1/6, Allen,
subscription required) notes that "House Democratic leaders on
Tuesday expressed confidence that the two chambers will reach an
eventual compromise on a single healthcare reform bill." Speaker
Pelosi "also hinted that the House will abandon its preference
for a government-run 'public option' in the process."
AFP (1/6, Knox) reports,
adding that "another potential obstacle is the House bill's
tougher restrictions on federal funds subsidizing abortions."
Van Hollen indicates House could accept Senate Medicare tax
plan.
Bloomberg Newsews
House Democrats "ambivalent" about meeting SOTU deadline for
healthcare bill.
Politicoico (1/6, O'Connor,
Thrush) reports, "During a White House meeting Tuesday,"
President Obama told Speaker Pelosi "and other congressional
leaders that he would like to see them approve a final bill by
his State of the Union address, set for late January or early
February," but "earlier in the day, House Democrats weren't
convinced they could meet that deadline -- and seemed ambivalent
about whether they even wanted to try."
According to the
Wall Street Journal
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