The only health care reform strategy that Senate Democrats could agree on Friday was that they all need to take a time out — but they weren’t necessarily singing the same tune when it came to how long that break should be.
While key health care negotiator Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) suggested a month to six weeks, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said leaders would likely begin to make decisions on how to salvage health care next week.
“By next week, I think we can come up with a preferred path,” Durbin said.
Dodd told reporters earlier that a longer break may be necessary, saying, “It isn’t as if you’ll have nothing to do around here. ... There’s a lot of other issues that could fill up the time of the Congress while we sat down and see if there wasn’t some way to resolve these differences and come up with a health care bill.”
The clearest sign that health care was moving to the back burner, however, was the fact that the Senators made the comments after a leadership meeting to discuss a job creation bill.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) expressed uncertainty about the health care package but said the Senate could work on two tracks at once.
“I don’t know when we’re going to do health care,” Baucus said. “I think health care is extremely important, and we will find a way to do health care. We’ll also be getting a jobs package. We can walk and chew gum at the same time, and we’re going to do that.”
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
