FROM: kaisernetwork.org Daily Reports.
CAPITOL HILL WATCH
"Jeffords Party Switch Likely to Influence Health Legislation
As expected, Sen. James Jeffords (Vt.) announced this morning that he
will leave the Republican party and serve as an Independent, giving
Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 1994, the
Washington Post reports. Jeffords said he will vote with Democrats "on
organizational matters," which will make Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.)
majority leader and give Democrats a one-vote majority in the chamber.
With the Senate now divided among 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one
Independent, the Democrats will assume the chairmanships of all
committees and set the schedule for votes and hearings. Jeffords said
the switch will take effect once the House and Senate "resolve their
differences" about President Bush's tax cut bill, which is currently in a
conference committee (Babington, Washington Post, 5/24). "I have changed
my party label, but I have not changed my beliefs," Jeffords said (Graff,
Burlington Free Press, 5/24). Jeffords, whose views have often put him
"at odds" with Republican leaders, has long been a supporter of abortion
rights and supported former President Clinton's failed universal health
care plan (Grier/Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, 5/24). Health care
analyst Robert Laszewski said that Jeffords' decision represents a "train
wreck for President Bush and the Republican agenda." With the Senate in
Democratic hands, Bush probably will have to "abandon the unilateral
governing style that has marked his first months in office," the Post
reports.
Health Care 'Imprint'
The Post reports that "Democrats' imprint [on the Senate] may be evident
nowhere more vividly than on several sensitive health care issues,
important to both parties, that have been entangled in partisan disputes
for years." For instance, Jeffords, chair of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will likely be replaced by Sen.
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), a "longtime leader on health issues" and one of
the Senate's "most liberal members." As committee chair, Kennedy "could
probably vote" his patients' rights bill (S 283) -- co-sponsored with
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- out of committee
and bring it to the full Senate for a vote, Health Insurance Association
of America president Chip Kahn said. In addition, with Sen. Don Nickles
(R-Okla.), one of the Senate's "most outspoken" patients' rights critics,
no longer serving as majority whip, "Senate action on patients' rights
[will] accelerate," the Post reports (Goldstein/Milbank, Washington Post,
5/24). Although Bush has said he would likely veto legislation that
includes an expanded right for patients to sue HMOs, "just elevating the
discussion could disrupt Republicans," Ira Loss, executive vice president
of HSBC Washington Analysis, said (Walsh, Boston Herald, 5/24).
Democrats say they are likely to bring the Kennedy-McCain-Edwards bill to
the floor "shortly after the Memorial Day recess," the Wall Street
Journal reports.
Rx for Change
The Journal reports that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who likely will
become chair of the Finance Committee, may be "eager" to advocate an
"ambitious Medicare prescription drug benefit." The benefit Democrats
support is "hefty" and includes "only dollops of the market-based reform
that many liberals abhor" but that Republicans have favored, the Journal
reports. Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former
director of the Congressional Budget Office, said that Jeffords' decision
"derails the [Bush] administration's intention of pushing a Medicare
restructuring forward." However, despite their majority, Democrats will
"still face significant political limits," particularly because it is
unclear whether the party's "health priorities could attract the 60 votes
needed to defeat a possible GOP filibuster," the Journal reports. AARP
chief lobbyist John Rother said, "The fundamental fact is that ... (the
Jeffords defection) doesn't change the votes" (Cummings/Rogers, Wall
Street Journal, 5/24)."
Health Policy As It Happens
http://www.kaisernetwork.org
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