Bipartisan senators ask for more time
Posted: Friday, July 17, 2009 2:06 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Congress, Economy
From NBC's Ken Strickland
Facing a White House-imposed August deadline to pass the health-care reform bill, a bipartisan group of senators is asking Democratic and Republican leaders for more time to write a bipartisan bill. "There is much heavy lifting ahead," wrote Sens. Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Ron Wyden, Susan Collins, Mary Landrieu, and Olympia Snowe.
"We support the efforts of Finance Committee members to produce a bipartisan bill, despite calls on both sides of the aisle to rush forward or delay indefinitely," they wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
"While we are committed to providing relief for American families as quickly as possible, we believe that taking additional time to achieve a bipartisan result is critical for legislation that affects 17% of our economy and every individual in the U.S."
Video: Newsmaker: Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., explains why the Senate Finance Committee is key to moving President Barack Obama’s health care plans along.
One of the letter's authors -- Snowe -- took her request directly to
President Obama in a White House meeting yesterday. She met resistance.
"Well, I don't know that he necessarily agreed," she said yesterday. "His desire is to complete the whole process prior to the August recess." Snowe said she wants to use the recess to review the legislation and discuss it with her constituents.
"I reminded the president that President [Lyndon] Johnson from the time that he gave his address on creating the Medicare system, it took a year and a half to accomplish that goal."
