Harry Hamburg/Associated Press Representative John M. Spratt Jr., center, chairs a House budget committee meeting on Monday. By a vote of 21 to 16, the House budget committee on Monday advanced a budget reconciliation bill to the next stage of the legislative process.
As yet, the bill contains no specific language related to health care; those provisions are to be added by the House rules committee later this week. Instead, the bill establishes a legislative framework by which to modify the Senate-passed health care bill. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the budget committee, called the reconciliation bill “a legislative Trojan horse.” (Emphasis added)
Representative John M. Spratt Jr., Democrat of South Carolina and chairman of the House budget committee, said there many precedents for using the budget reconciliation process to create or alter social insurance programs.
Under a procedure being considered by House Democrats, the Senate bill would be “deemed passed,” without actually being voted on, when the House adopts rules for debate on the budget reconciliation bill.
“The Democrats are trying to avoid accountability for an up-or-down vote,” said Representative David Dreier of California, the senior Republican on the House rules committee. “It’s painful to see the gymnastics they are resorting to.’’
