Grijalva: Progressives Will Push For Changes To House Bill
Liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives can get behind the health care bill Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled today, but they'll press Democratic House leaders to make changes to it, according to one of the leaders of the House Progressive Caucus.
Progressive lawmakers are "obviously disappointed" that Pelosi's bill didn't include a stronger public option, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), one of two co-chairs of the House Progressive Caucus, said in a phone interview.
"There's a level of satisfaction that we've brought {the public option} back from the dead, but a level of disappointment that it's not what we think the mechanism should have been," Grijalva said.
"We're gonna ask the leadership in the House to make some imrpovements on it," Grijalva said. "Obviously the most difficult issue is, something that people are requesting, is that we have an up or down vote on the robust public option as an amendment."
House leaders have indicated that the reform package will be closed to such an amendment when it reaches the floor for a vote, which is expected as early as next week. Democratic leaders reportedly don't have enough votes to pass a robust public option--one that ties physician and hospital reimbursement rates under the government-run plan to those used by Medicare.
But Grijalva says progressives are close--and they want to try to get there.
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http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/grijalva_progressives_will_push_for_change_to_house_bill.php