Final healthcare votes: Congressman Chaka Fattah releases statement

Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) releases the following statement on today's final healthcare votes in the Congress:

"However you keep time – almost a century since healthcare legislation was first proposed, 17 years since contentious debate began in the Congress, 16 months since President Obama won landslide election on the mandate of healthcare reform, and a climactic week of late-night votes -- we can finally say: the time is NOW for the reality of reform to begin.

"Today we can thank the United States Senate for delivering on its promise with a decisive vote to finish the job of comprehensive reform. Today we are completing a process I advocated the morning after the Massachusetts Senate special election – approval of the Senate bill, with corrections under budget reconciliation.

"Thanks especially to our two Pennsylvanians, Senator Bob Casey who spent a long night presiding over the chamber through multiple votes on Republican delaying amendments, and our distinguished senior Senator Arlen Specter who has exercised courageous leadership on healthcare and education reform all along.

"When my House colleagues and I cast our votes tonight to send the final corrected legislation to President Obama, our work in Congress on healthcare reform will be nearly complete. Thanks to the President and our Congressional leadership, the nation will finally achieve broad, fair, comprehensive – and historic -- healthcare reform, a national imperative and the right for every American."