House May Try To Pass Smaller Individual Healthcare Bills, Says Hoyer

Unwilling to make the ultimate concession and pass the Senate’s healthcare reform bill, the House may try to pass a series of individual bills, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday.

“We may have individual bills on the floor...that’s in discussion,” said Hoyer, who acknowledged that passing piecemeal legislation could be difficult given that many reform provisions rely on others to be effective. Hoyer said that a decision on how to proceed would be made “as soon as [House leaders] know the way forward.”

In addition to healthcare, Hoyer touched upon a laundry list of issues during his weekly briefing with reporters, including Pay-Go legislation that passed the Senate last week. The Majority Leader said that the House would vote on a Pay-Go proposal of its own within a bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling on Thursday.

Addressing the big news story of the day -- testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen regarding ending the military’s ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy -- Hoyer said he supported doing away with the controversial practice.

“‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ needs to be repealed,” he said. Hoyer added that although Mullen called for an end to the policy during Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Congress would wait to act on putting forth legislation.

Later, Hoyer blasted Republican leadership for blocking a Senate amendment last week that would’ve created a congressional debt commission. Hoyer took shots at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), noting that he had been for the commission before he voted against it. The Majority Leader expressed his hope that President Barack Obama would “go forward” on issuing an executive order to create a similar commission.

And for you sports fans out there, when asked for his pick to win the Super Bowl, Hoyer wouldn’t commit to either the Saints or Colts, but may have tipped his hand when he quipped that the “Colts were stolen out of Baltimore...in the dead of night.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer Breaks Down Democrats' 2010 Agenda

By Laurel Brishel Prichard and Sofia Sanchez University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) gave an overview Tuesday on what to expect from Democrats in 2010, which according to Hoyer will include health care, jobs, and whether Haitians will be allowed short term refugee status in the United States.

“The failure [of health care reform] is a fact, and we have to learn from it if we want to do better,” said Hoyer in a statement.

While the state of the health care bill is still unknown, Democrats have several options at hand: do nothing, try to pass a lesser form of the bill, pass the senate bill as is, or pass the Senate bill with the understanding that there will be corrections to the bill in another piece of legislation.

Hoyer said the Senate bill in its current state is not viable.

Many Democrats are hoping that President Barack Obama will address the next move in his State Of The Union address Wednesday.

Hoyer told reporters that jobs have not been on the back burner to health care. One of the first bills passed in 2009 was in regards to jobs, as was the last piece of legislation that the house put through. Also, Hoyer said, health care reform would could spur job growth.

“If health care is passed, it will help create 4 million jobs in the next decade,” said Hoyer.

Hoyer expressed sympathy for the Haitian community when asked if special exceptions will be allowed for Haitian immigration into the United States.

“I don’t want to pre-judge what will happen,” said Hoyer.

The United States has assisted in rushing through some adoptions of Haitian children in the time since the earthquake hit Haiti.

House Democrats Urge Senate Counterparts To Get Into Gear

By Leah Valencia - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Members of the House Democratic Caucus said Wednesday said that they plan on passing a jobs package today and will put pressure on their Senate colleagues to act with more compulsion.

"The caucus will pass over a jobs bill today, along with a defense bill, to the Senate, and we encourage...in fact, we would like to see the Senate take more action,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (D-Conn.). “The American people are demanding that the [Senate] take action, and most importantly, that we get America back to work.”

Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said a recent count done by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) showed that 234 House bills have failed to pass through the Senate. Larson said he would like to see the Senate catch up.
"We'd be happy with just three, health care, energy, education...make that four, a jobs bill," Larson said.

Larson told reporters that he did not blame the Senate Democratic leadership for slow progress.

"Harry Reid will get a direct shot to heaven," he said. “He is laboring mightily with the rules of the Senate. It shouldn't be that any one senator or a collection thereof [can] stop progress on behalf of the American people, whether that's health care or a jobs bill."

House Democrats Move To Increase Debt Limit

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer  (D-Md.) said Friday that the House of Representatives will vote next week to increase the the national debt limit by up to $1.9 trillion to avoid a default in U.S. debt.

The Majority Leader said that an increase debt limit is necessary to keep the government running into December of 2010.

“The amount I want to increase the debt is zero,” Hoyer said. “But ... we need to do it so we can meet the bills that we’ve incurred.”

House Democrats are battling to push through legislation that would increase the $12 trillion spending limit by December 31, the date given by the Treasury Department as the deadline for when funds would run out. Passage of the bill would increase the federal debt limit to a total of $14 trillion.

“We are not flexible, we are using December 31 as a deadline,” Hoyer said. “We do not want to wait until the deadline.”

Resistance has been found in fiscally conscious "Blue Dog” Democrats who say they are not willing to vote to increase the deficit unless the legislation includes strict “pay-as-you-go” language, aimed at ensuring that future expenditures will not further increase the deficit.

“The Speaker and I are vowing to make sure we do everything possible to pass statutory Pay-go this year,” Hoyer said. “It would be very difficult to raise the debt limit without support in either chamber of those that are very concerned with fiscal discipline.”

The “Pay-as-you-go measure,” which would require lawmakers to offset new spending by making cuts elsewhere, is expected to be included to a $626 billion Pentagon funding bill that will be voted on next week.

Pelosi: House To Vote On Jobs Bill Next Week

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House of Representatives will pass a job package next week in an effort to battle the rising unemployment rate.

Pelosi said that the bill will focus on extending unemployment benefits, give aid to local and state governments, help small businesses and boost infrastructure spending.

"Whether we can get all of that, I don't know, but that's what I would like to see next week," Pelosi said during her weekly press conference.

She indicated a definite urgency in passing an extension that would safety-net unemployment insurance and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), both programs that are due to expire at the end of this year.

Unemployment in November charted at 10%.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the cost of the jobs package could range from $75 billion to $150 billion.