Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is no longer promising that the Finance Committee will finish work on the health care reform bill before the start of the August recess, as the bipartisan committee negotiations have stalled.
On Thursday afternoon, Reid would only say he was “cautiously optimistic” that the committee would complete its work before the end of next week when the summer break begins.
“Significant progress has been made,” he said. “I still feel that we can move forward.”
But a morning session between the three Republicans and three Democrats did not happen as expected, and no further meetings have been scheduled – an unusual break from the daily talks that have been ongoing for weeks. There was confusion among Democratic and Republican staff as all sides tried to figure out where the talks stood.
“We're trying to do some really crazy stuff on a really short time frame," Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a member of the Finance committee, said Thursday. "This is a train wreck.”
The three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are under increasing pressure from their leadership not to cut a deal anytime soon, according to sources, and that message has been delivered frequently in recent weeks.
Baucus wanted to show progress on the negotiations before the August recess, either announcing a deal or releasing the framework of a bill.
But Republicans decided — once again — that they did not want to operate on the Democratic timeline, a GOP aide said. Enzi and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) huddled privately Wednesday night with their colleagues, and in an unusual move, they kicked their staff out of the meeting.
"The Democrats' rush to produce a bill outline before recess was based more on political needs than policy progress," the aide said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy. "The naked political motivations made negotiations all the more difficult. - Politico Story
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