During the Finance Committee’s debate on the health care reform bill, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) defended a colleague’s request that the committee not vote on the bill until the legislative language is online for 72 hours, reports Think Progress.
Why? So health insurers’ lobbyists have time to look it over and say, “Hey, wait a minute.”
“The thing that I’m trying to point out is we would have at least 72 hours for the people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation that we pass around here, and the regulations that we pass around here, to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Have you considered this?'” Roberts said. “That 72 hours, I think, is highly, highly important.”
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) had requested that the committee put the legislative language of the bill on its web site for 72 hours before voting, something Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) called “fundamentally a delay tactic.” Democrats voted down the amendment, 12-11.
