From The New Republic‘s Jonathan Cohn comes word that congressional Democrats are looking to ditch a formal conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate health care reform bills in favor of informal negotiations — or “ping pong,” as it’s called.
According to one of Cohn’s sources, a House staffer, “There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” noting that there are too many procedural obstacles in the Senate to convene a formal conference. A conference to reconcile the bills would require a series of motions in the Senate that call for votes with full debate, offering Republicans a fresh spate of opportunities to stall final passage of the bill (which you know they will not pass up).
To clarify, ping pong doesn’t necessarily mean that the House has to approve, without any say, the Senate health bill. As Cohn notes, ping-ponging can be used as a generic term for informal talks, with the idea that the Senate and House pass the bill back and forth to each other until they’ve agreed on a final version.
Considering the unprecedented obstructionism that Republicans have shown over the course of the past year, going the ping pong route is certainly understandable. From a policy standpoint, it limits the possibility of the bill becoming derailed as the Republicans stretch the process out and strike fear in the hearts of wavering lawmakers. From a political standpoint, its appeal, even to House Dems who don’t particularly like the Senate health bill, is obvious: it allows them to get the protracted health reform debate over with and pivot to jobs.
For the White House, it seems like a no-brainer: play ping pong, pass the bill, and sign it before the end of the month. That would be in time for President Obama’s State of the Union address, when he can stand in front of the American people boasting of a major victory on health care and charting a new path — jobs, jobs, jobs — for 2010.
