How do the House & Senate bills get reconciled?

Public option will go…and must compromise on the language on abortion!

hey, this is good..

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Politics/2009/12/22/Burris-reworks-Twas-the-Night/1261506635.html

Like your approach! Don’t like heated discussion on politics. Never a winner, only hurt feelings!

Thank you, @Cotton101. But I’m not asking what you think the result will be. I’m asking how the result is acheived. What is the procedure?

I’m guessing..it will go back to a committee of, hopefully, Dems and Repubs, and they will work out the compromise and then go back to the floor for a vote. Just surmising…

There are two options. The most likely option is that the House and Senate convene a Conference Committee. The conference committee is made up of select members from both Houses appointed by the leadership. In cases when the legislation is broadly bi-partisan, conference members routinely come from both parties as well. That will obviously not be the case in this situation. Once the conferees are appointed, they will meet and try to hammer out the differences between the two bills. If they accomplish that, then the new bill, called the conference agreement or conference report, has to go back to each chamber and be passed again.

Sometimes, the conference report is “pre-cooked,” meaning that the leadership in both chambers negotiate the terms of the report before the conferees actually meet. This happens more often with big, high profile bills like this one.

The second option is that the House simply passes the version of the bill that the Senate just passed this morning. This is colloquially called, “ping-ponging.” If they do that, no conference is needed, and the bill simply goes straight to the President’s desk.

Supposedly it goes to a conference committee. In reality, it probably will go to a committee, but there will be a hell of a lot of wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.

Thank you, @Michael. Very well explained.

@Michael The second option is that the House simply passes the version of the bill that the Senate just passed this morning. This is colloquially called, “ping-ponging.” If they do that, no conference is needed, and the bill simply goes straight to the President’s desk.

that will never happen…not on this one! compromising will be necessary on public options and abortion!

and doubt there will be any “pre-cooked” deal made on this one…

this one will take some time to work out…ummm..maybe Easter!

@Cotton101 Easter? Really? Wanna bet?

I agree that ping-ponging this bill is very unlikely, but I guarantee that the President will sign a health reform bill well before Easter. In fact, I bet he signs it before March 1st.

@Michael awww…you could be right and so could i…we shall see Michael!

Do they have to get 60 votes again? That’s the real question, and I haven’t heard anyone address it. I think I need to go listen to that school house rock episode again.
Here it is

Judi, the Senate has already voted..going back to the House!

@Judi If the bill goes to a conference committee (which it looks like it will) and the final conference agreement is at all different from the Senate bill, then the Senate will have to vote again on the new conference agreement and that vote will also be subject to a filibuster. In other words, yes. There will need to be sixty votes in the Senate to pass the combined bill.

you would be correct Michael…we shall see…Easter..loll

@Cotton101 ,They can reconcile anything with Chicago style politics,,watch your knee caps.

Loll…understood Mike!