Hoyer: Christmas deadline no guarantee
Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:01 PM by firstread
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Luke Russert
from NBC's Luke Russert
At his weekly off camera pen and pad session with Capitol Hill reporters, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) would not guarantee that a healthcare reform bill would be passed by Christmas. When asked by NBC News if reform would pass by the holiday, Hoyer said, "Can I guarantee that? No. Do I think it will? Yes."
Responding to another question about healthcare reform timing and the Christmas holiday, Hoyer said, "Healthcare, we want to get that done, although I don't guarantee it, certainly we are going to get it done in the House. And I'm hopeful that during this next month and half we will be working with the Senate…once they decide what they are going to do and what we are going to do, we'll talk about how we are going to resolve differences that we have."
Hoyer also predicted that financial regulatory reform would start to take shape in the next month, “Barney Frank's committee is working and focused on regulatory reform. It's going to start marking up this week and it's going to be focusing on the administration's proposal in addition to other issues related to derivatives and credit default swap.”
Hoyer went on to say Frank’s Financial Services Committee would work towards “the establishment of a consumer financial protection agency. That agency is designed to focus from a consumer perspective as opposed to a financial institutions operational standpoint.”
According to Hoyer, the regulatory reform bill should be on the House floor “within the next three to four weeks.”
