There has been a lot of talk about how the Senate health insurance bill will be passed this week in the House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may not have to muster the votes for the Senate bill. Speaker Pelosi mentioned yesterday that she may pass the bill without having members vote on it with the “deem and pass ” rule.
According to The Washington Post, the “deem and pass ” rule would allow House members to vote on the popular package of fixes to the Senate bill but not actually vote on the unpopular Senate bill. In the House, if the vote for the package of fixes is passed, then that signifies that House lawmakers “deem ” the Senate health insurance bill to be passed.
This type of ruling has been used in the House before but not for such a large and expensive bill.
“It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know. But I like it because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill, ” said Speaker Pelosi.
Speaker Pelosi said she could also use two other ways to pass the Senate health care bill but prefers the “deem and pass ” rule. The rule protects lawmakers who do not want to publicly support to bill which could politically help lawmakers in upcoming elections.
Using this type of procedure to pass the Senate health insurance bill may be favored by Democrats but will most likely result in an uproar from opponents of the bill.