Finance Committee 'slows down' its health legislation schedule

According to The Hill, "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Wednesday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of his healthcare bill has prompted him to rein in costs and admitted that could delay action on the legislation. His goal is to bring the cost of his panel's sprawling healthcare reform bill down from $1.6 trillion to $1 trillion, and to pay for it entirely with tax increases, spending cuts and other offsets."

"Baucus said his committee will go back to the drawing board to pare down the cost of healthcare reform and could not guarantee that a markup of legislation would happen next week as scheduled."

"A Finance Committee aide said the changes will not result in any delays to the schedule. Baucus's bill has yet to be made public, and the markup was expected to begin before the July 4 recess" (Bolton,6/17).

Earlier, the Washington Post reported that, after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began marking up its version of the health reform bill with "an acrimonious" start, the Senate Finance Committee decided to "slow down a bit," in the words of member John Kyl, R-Ariz. The committee "has postponed the markup of its health reform bill, which was scheduled to begin this week, until after the Fourth of July recess, sources said Wednesday" (Connolly and Montgomery, 6/16).