WASHINGTON — Senior Democrats have reached broad agreement on a plan to prevent Republicans from blocking President Obama's sweeping healthcare proposals, congressional officials said Friday.
The plan, which would use special provisions of the budget process to prevent a Senate filibuster, threatens to sow outrage among Republican lawmakers and could complicate Democrats' efforts to push through the rest of their agenda. But Obama and his allies believe their decision to use the "budget reconciliation" process will allow passage of the kind of health system overhaul that has eluded Washington.
The president reiterated that position Thursday night in a meeting with congressional leaders, according to officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
Adding healthcare to the list of measures that will be treated as part of the budget resolution process would allow Democrats to pass the legislation with 51 votes in the Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority normally required to avoid a filibuster.
With a big Democratic majority in the House and Democrats controlling at least 58 seats in the Senate, the move would all but guarantee that a single GOP vote would not be needed.
Democrats hope to approve the budget resolution as early as next week, although the specifics of a healthcare plan will take months to work out.
With Senate Democrats talking through final details of the legislative strategy, lawmakers said there was broad agreement to invoke the budget reconciliation process to circumvent a filibuster if the two parties have not reached agreement on a healthcare bill by September.
"We are hopeful we will be able to complete work next week," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in a statement Friday, adding that there was still "a fair amount of work to be done."
Under the budget deal, Obama still would need 60 votes to pass his plans to fight global warming, although he has a trump card on climate change: the ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned against the move to limit GOP power.
"Fast-tracking a major legislative overhaul such as healthcare reform . . . without the benefit of a full and transparent debate does a disservice to the American people," he said. "And it would make it absolutely clear they intend to carry out their plans on a purely partisan basis."
