Two summary statements from today’s news: Pelosi could proceed with plan to pass Senate bill without House vote and Still no final reconciliation bill or CBO score.
- The House Budget Committee voted Monday to advance the legislation toward a floor vote later this week.
- The panel approved a package of fixes to the overhaul by a vote of 21 to 16.
- Two Democrats sided with all 14 Republicans in voting against the plan.
- 37 Democrats remain opposed to the bill, albeit with varying degrees of commitment.
- The House Rules Committee can now take up the shell bill after a 48-hour layover.
- If the House completes a final vote this weekend, the Senate would take next steps with the bill as early as next week.
- Note that debate on reconciliation is limited to 20 hours.
- However, amendments do not count toward the 20 hours, so the Republicans could tie this up for some time.
- Some speculate that the delay in releasing the bill and CBO score (which was initially supposed to come out as early as last week) suggests that early estimates from the CBO were inaccurate, and they're making changes to get the score that they want.
- Democrats need a CBO score that's positive enough to help give fiscal conservatives an excuse to vote for the bill.
- Having promised to post the bill online for 72 hours before they vote, the Democrats now have about a day to get a good score if they want to vote by Saturday.