by Alex Sange

This morning, in the middle of an historic snowstorm, the Senate took an equally epic vote to move health care reform forward toward a final bill on the President’s desk.  At 1am Monday morning, all 100 Senators cast a vote on party lines (58 Democrats and 2 Independents supporting, 40 Republicans opposing) to move the health care reform debate forward.  Technically, this was a vote to ‘invoke cloture’ on Majority Leader Reid’s Manager’s Amendment improving and adding to their reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  NACHC supports the underlying bill, and especially appreciates the improvements made for health centers in the Manager’s Amendment.  Essentially, this was the symbolic first vote, which needed all 60 votes, to pass a health care reform bill out of the Senate.  Up through Christmas Eve we’ll see a series of procedural votes – and all of them will take all 60 in support – to finally approve the bill by the Christmas Eve.  Here’s a holiday week-ahead Senate timeline for what we can expect:

• Monday (21^st): the first cloture vote on the manager’s amendment on Monday morning at 1am. Which leads them to…
• Tuesday (22^nd): the second cloture vote on the substitute amendment (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) Tuesday at 7am, then…
• Wednesday (23^rd): the cloture vote on the underlying bill (the vehicle, HR 3590) Wednesday at 1pm. If everything goes as smoothly as possible, the senate might get an agreement to wrap up and have final passage on the night of the 23^rd. However, several Senators in the minority have already pledged to use every tactic they know to delay debate and…
• Thursdsay (24^th): it’s likely they’ll be forced into final passage on Christmas Eve.

Assuming the Senate does pass a bill this week, the House and Senate will draw up a Conference Committee to build a single bill that incorporates provisions from both.  The committee will be made up of members of the House and Senate leadership and the Chairs of the committees of jurisdiction (House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor; Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Finance).  Every Member of Congress will play a role in health reform and all health center advocates have a voice… So call your Senator, stay in touch with your Representatives, and keep encouraging them to support the bill and ensure that low-income, underserved individuals have access to a health center home and quality, affordable health care!