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Senate Finance Committee Vote on Public Option Expected Today
C-Span covering Senate Finance debate and vote today.
Public option backers not expecting to win in right-leaning committee, but to build momentum for floor vote. The Hill: “Senate aides and liberal activists say the panel will reject amendments offered by Schumer and Rockefeller to include the public option but that enough Democrats will support it to influence future deliberations. ‘We have a good chance of getting [Sen. Tom] Carper [D-Del.], but [Sen.] Blanche Lincoln [D-Ark.] is still a question mark,’ said a person familiar with committee-level negotiations. ‘We’re going to lose [Sen.] Kent Conrad [D-N.D.] and Baucus, but we’ll strengthen our hand going forward.’ … If a strong majority of Finance Committee Democrats support it, liberals would have a powerful argument that Reid should include the public option in the bill he brings to the Senate floor in the next few weeks.”

Don’t call it a comeback. Politico headline: “Public option may have new life.”

Politico Pulse on expectations for a full Senate vote, and possibility of simple majority vote via budget reconciliation: “…Senate Majority Leader Reid expects to have a merged Finance-HELP bill on the floor by mid-October. Some insiders have wondered how the Oct. 15 statutory deadline to make a decision on reconciliation affects the timeline. The answer: It doesn’t. While the deadline is part of the budget resolution’s conference report, there are no consequences if senators fail to act by then, a Senate Democratic leadership aide said. Practically, it means Democrats can use reconciliation anytime after Oct. 15. And while they are currently focused on getting 60 votes, reconciliation ‘is in the back of everyone’s mind,’ the aide said.”

House schedule to consolidate various committee bills a little murky. CQ: “House Democrats plan to continue meeting this week to write their health care overhaul, but they have no schedule yet for releasing a bill and moving it to the floor.”

FireDogLake’s Jane Hamsher reports that 24 Blue Dogs have expressed support, at some point, for public option: “The fact that a Blue Dog has supported a public option in the past does not mean that they will support one now — their principles tend to be lobbyist-flexible. But Nate Silver’s number crunching indicates that most of those who have done so in the past probably have majority support for a public option in their districts, so come 2010, they will have some explaining to do about why they flip-flopped.”

More Fixes Called For Beyond Public Option
PRWatch.org’s Wendell Potter, CIGNA whistleblower, says more amendments, beyond public option, needed to salvage Baucus bill: “The adoption of an amendment to create a strong public option, supported by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and many others on the committee, is certainly job one. But there are many additional fixes that are necessary, including other amendments being offered by Senator Rockefeller. They are so important I have sent a letter to Senator Baucus and the other members of the committee urging them to adopt the Rockefeller amendments that will require private insurance companies to be more honest and transparent in their dealings with consumers and more accountable to federal and state governments that must regulate them.”

HuffPost’s Ryan Grim reports Sen. Byron Dorgan is planning to undo the WH-PhRMA deal: “[Dorgan] is hoping to blow up the deal reached between the White House, drug makers and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), by introducing an amendment on the floor to allow prescription drugs to be re-imported from Canada … A bill to allow re-importation — S. 1232 – has 30 cosponsors, several Republicans among them, including Olympia Snowe … Jim Manley, senior communications adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that he sees no reason the amendment won’t get a floor vote.”

ThinkProgress reports 47 amendments are direct from insurance lobby “wish list.”