Hoyer On House-Senate Health Care Shuffle: ‘I Trust Leader Reid’

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today that while his Democratic caucus is wary the Senate will live up to a promise to fix problems with the health care bill using reconciliation, he trusts Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to do the right thing.

Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters during his weekly pen-and-pad briefing that House Democrats “want some assurance that those items they have problems with are in fact modified before they vote for the Senate bill.”

Reporters asked if House Democrats need a formal promise in writing from 50 senators that reconciliation would pass, and Hoyer insisted “We need an agreement between the two bodies. I trust Leader Reid, if he tells me they can do something I think he’ll be able to do it.”

“The most optimal way is for them to do it first,” Hoyer said, adding a quip that it’s a sort of “trust” and then “verify.”

He said his caucus will “need to hear things that will give them a level of confidence” the changes will be made, and dodged questions on the exact timing of how the two bills would work. Hoyer acknowledged that by definition the House would need to start the reconciliation measure, but was not clear on whether that would be done before the House votes on the Senate’s overall legislation.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Hoyer said. The reconciliation bill would need to be written to address changes to legislation that hasn’t yet become law, he said.

Hoyer said leadership has spoken with President Obama and the plan he reveals tomorrow will “reflect to some degree” a resolution of the differences between the House and Senate bills.

Obama sent Congressional leaders a letter this afternoon detailing the direction he’s headed for that final compromise proposal.

Hoyer said leadership is talking to “everybody” to make sure they can get to “218-plus” to pass the bill.

“Starting over is a euphemism for not doing,” Hoyer said. “We believe the American people want us to go forward.”

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