This week in Congress was once again dominated by health care as all eyes switched chambers to the Senate of the United States. This is where the Health-Care reconciliation/correction bill was being debated. After President Barach Obama signed the policy making part of the health-care bill Tuesday morning, click for the Health Care law, the Senate needed to pass the reconciliation/correction bill to make changes in the new health-care law.
After the Senate conducted 42 votes on amendments to the bill, it was successful in making a couple of changes to the bill via a procedural point of order. All of this happened prior to a final passage vote of 56 to 43. The chances of the Senate being able to make changes to this second part of the two-part health-care legislative process was expected and predicted - click to read prediction . This change to the House-passed reconciliation/corrections bill caused another full vote to occur in the House of Representatives. After brief debate, the House voted to concur (agree) to the changes made by the Senate. Consequently, the second part of this two-part process has been completed by Congress. You can expect the POTUS to sign this bill in very short order.
The Senate is expected to reach an agreement whereby they can pass the recently House passed one-month extension of the unemployment benefits, extending them again until April 30, 2010. Following this action, the House and Senate are expected to take a two-week recess for the Easter Holiday. The Congress will reconvene on Tuesday, April 13, to a full schedule. I will report on their pending schedules in upcoming columns.
House
- Passed a one-month extension of the unemployment benefits, now expiring April 30, 2010.
- Agreed to the Senate amendments to the health-care reconciliation/corrections bill, sending this bill to the president for his signature.
- Passed a Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010.
- Passed a $5 Billion supplemental appropriations bill to further fund FEMA and other agencies that have been tapped for various recent U.S. disasters. (The House declared this bill an emergency and thus did not have to find any offsets for adding this money to the deficit.)
Senate
- Passed the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration. This agency hasnt been fully funded since 2007.
- Passed the health-care reconciliation/corrections bill, with amendments.
- Working on an agreement to pass the one-month extension of nemployment benefits.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, four-time elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. She is the creator of GradeGov.com.
