Boehner Decries Phantom Amendments" Added to Senate Bill After Committee Vote
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced earlier today that the Finance Committee will vote on the Baucus health care reform bill Tuesday. Voice of America the nations tax-funded news service reports that this vote comes after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported the Senate bill would cost about $829 billion over the next decade. The CBO report says the bill would result in reductions to the deficit" VOA reports.
You had to click over to the New York Times to learn the budget office said 25 million people about one-third of them illegal immigrants would still be uninsured in 2019."
The percentage of nonelderly Americans with insurance would rise over the next 10 years from 83 to 94 percent.
Republicans still skeptical
Republican minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called the cost analysis irrelevant."
The fact is the bill its referring to will never see the light of day" he said. Thats because the real bill will soon be cobbled together in a secret conference room somewhere in the Capitol by a handful of Democrat senators and White House officials."
According to the Washington Post Reid blasted Republicans for opposing the Finance Committees measure accusing GOP leaders of aiming to be partisan protesters rather than productive partners. "
Boehner Decries Phantom Amendments" Added to Senate Health Care Bill After Committee Vote
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) expressed outrage after learning that Senate Democratic leaders quietly made more than 70 substantive changes to the text of a health care bill after the legislation was voted on and passed by the
Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee.
The changes were made without a vote and without the knowledge of the committees minority members.
Boehner condemned the practice of adding such phantom amendments" to bills and announced that Republicans will introduce a resolution that would change House rules to require committees to post the actual text of adopted bills and amendments online within 24 hours to prevent similar acts of deception.
The American people are fed up with the way in which Congress does business. Whether its passing massive spending bills no one in America has read or making
secret changes to bills after theyve already been passed by committees business as usual in Congress needs to end" Boehner said.
The American people deserve a Congress that is transparent and accountable to the people it serves. The practice of secretly adding phantom amendments to major bills after they pass committee is outrageous and it should be banned. Americans should be allowed to read the text of all bills online within 24 hours after they are approved by congressional committees."
According to a report by IWP News Senate Republicans are raising new concerns about being forced to vote on health reform bills prior to the availability of legislative text complaining that a wellness measure unanimously agreed to during the health committees July markup is absent from the recently released bill.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) suggested last week that the committees majority staff may have deliberately excluded the amendment which passed after much hoopla over bipartisanship. The final bill was released on Sept. 17 two months after it was approved along party lines and following repeated demands by Republicans to see the final legislative text.
I think thats an outrage" said Enzi (R-WY) who is the ranking member on the health committee.
While the current Congress is the worst Ive seen it is hardly the first Congress to have a transparency problem. Republican-led Congresses fell short in this area too" Boehner said.
But when I chaired the Committee on Education and the Workforce now
Education & Labor we always made it a point to make the text of committee-passed bills publicly available within 24 hours after a vote. It isnt a difficult thing to accomplish and its the right thing to do for the American people who want government that is open transparent and accountable. I plan to introduce a resolution in the House that will require all House committees to post bills and amendments online within 24 hours after theyre adopted and I hope members
on both sides of the aisle will support it. Its just common sense."
Boehner is supporting an effort by Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR) and John Culberson (R-TX) to change House rules to require all bills to be posted online for a minimum of 72 hours before they are brought to a vote on the House floor.
