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Egberto, As the health care debate moves to the Senate, there will be numerous procedural steps that could stop us from getting action now, not later on health care reform. Getting a bill that is good for cancer patients signed into law is a long and tedious process. As active ACS CAN volunteers, we want to make sure you stay in the loop for all the breaking news in the coming weeks. Take a minute to read the email below. Dick Woodruff, ACS CAN Senior Director of Federal, Relations has outlined the next steps in debating the health care bill. It really helps explain how this legislation will proceed. To read a more detailed explanation, click on the link below: Stay tuned for updates on the progress of the health care bill. Talk to you soon, ————– Forwarded Message —————– Hi Molly, Thanks for your email. As you know, the health care debate in the Senate will get going in earnest this week. I wanted to shoot you a quick response for ACS CAN volunteers to answer the question: Now that the House has acted, what’s next? The rules in the Senate are very different then the House, and there will be many opportunities for supporters and opponents of the bill to offer amendments causing the process to take a number of weeks. 1) As you know, on November 21st, the Senate voted to “proceed to consideration” of the health reform bill. This means that Senators can now begin debating the bill and offering amendments. 2) It’s likely that Senator Reid will begin by encouraging senators to offer and debate amendments under the so-called “regular order.” During this step, amendments are introduced and acted on in sequential order with supporters and opponents having the opportunity to make changes to the bill. That process could last for several weeks. 3) The essential event that will have to happen at some point is that Senator Reid will need 60 votes to adopt that cloture motion to limit the debate and get to a vote on final passage. Cloture is the process by which the Senate signals the end of debate on the bill. 4) If the bill passes the Senate, it will move to the conference committee, where House and Senate leaders will negotiate a final bill to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions. The penultimate step will be passage or rejection by the House and Senate of the conferenced bill and then, if it passes, on to the White House for thePresident’s signature. Hope that helps! Best, |
