"Top House chairman signals House will act first on healthcare."

[Clio the Leo]

Top House chairman signals House will act first on healthcare
By Michael O'Brien - 02/26/10 09:31 AM ET

The House could act first to pass a healthcare bill within the next month, a top House chairman signaled Thursday.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), suggested that the House may pass the Senate bill before any other action is taken -- a key concession to Senate Democrats.

"The choreography gets a little complicated here, but the House will present a reconciliation bill," Miller said during an appearance on MSNBC. "It will be based on many of the principles that the president put forth to correct some of the problems the House and others have had with the Senate bill."

But since Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in late January, talks had stalled over how to proceed with healthcare, with House Democratic leaders saying only that they lacked trust in the Senate's ability to act.

Miller conceded that the House may have to pass the healthcare bill first approved by the Senate in December before the Congress can take up a bill using the reconciliation process in order to make fixes to the Senate bill. Using that process, the Senate could approve those changes with only a simple majority vote, instead of the 60 votes usually needed to end a filibuster.

"That may require us to pass the Senate bill first and then send the reconciliation bill to the Senate for them to pass," Miller said. "I think Sen. Reid believes he can put the votes together for that."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/83877-top-house-chairman-signals-house-will-act-first-on-healthcare

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1. First rec (to offset unrec)