Grassley,ROSS say passage of healthcare bill likely this year

[Political Junky]

Grassley, Ross Say Passage of Health-Care Bill Likely This Year - Bloomberg.com

By Ryan J. Donmoyer

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- The top Senate Republican drafting health-care legislation and a leader of House Democrats balking at the plan said they don’t expect committee and floor-vote delays to keep a bill from passing this year.

Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said “it’s going to be difficult” for his panel to approve legislation in the next two weeks. Beyond that, the odds of Congress enacting an overhaul later this year are “very, very good,” the Iowa senator said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, chairman of the health-care task force for the Blue Dog Coalition, about 50 self-described fiscally conservative House Democrats, said it would be a mistake for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring the measure to the chamber’s floor before lawmakers take their August recess.

“I don’t think they have the votes,” Ross said in a separate “Political Capital” interview.

By year’s end, “we will meet the president’s goal of passing meaningful and substantive health-care reform,” he also said.
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Looking good for Democrats ... elections have consequences.