Friday, January 22, 2010

Sestak Says House Won't Pass Senate Health Bill

Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak of Media, Pennsylvania says he agrees with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s assessment that the Senate’s health care bill can’t pass the House.
Shortly after attending a House Democratic caucus meeting, Senate candidate Joe Sestak said he doesn’t expect any more movement on the health care bill the upper chamber passed in December.

"They’re going to take a different route than just take the Senate bill and vote on it. It’s going to be one of trying to have, in the best way possible, a bill or pieces of bills – different bills that will pass and do good for the citizens."

Democratic leaders had hoped to work out the House and Senate bills’ differences and then pass an amended version of the legislation, but Senator-elect Scott Brown’s Massachusetts victory gives Republicans just enough seats to block a final Senate vote on the measure.
Congress spent much of 2009 debating health care, but Sestak says he would expect the new bills to move at a faster pace.
He says taken one at a time, provisions like a ban on denying coverage for people with preexisting conditions could be sold to the public more effectively than the sweeping health care bill had been.

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