Can health care bypass Energy & Commerce? from Congress Matters

by David Waldman

A couple of articles in The Hill have hinted at the possibility that the Blue Dog roadblock in the Energy & Commerce committee may just have to be bypassed entirely.

Can it be done? Yes. But it's almost certainly not anyone's preference. It'd be a very aggressive move, but then again, there's really no opportunity to soothe ruffled feathers on this bill. Republicans are dug in as a matter of party policy. Blue Dogs are digging in as a matter of... well, who knows why? But they're only relevant to the extent that they differentiate themselves from the Democratic mainstream, so that's what they're doing. You had to expect it. For Blue Dogs not to do this on such an important bill would have called their reason for existence into question. So they had to come up with something. Though I suppose you could have made the case that Blue Dogs believe in health care reform, but have differences on other agenda items. But then they wouldn't be in the papers while everyone's eyes were on health care. And they'll be there for a long time. So the money play for Blue Dogs is to find something to object to, and start objecting.

So, how to bypass them? Well, Speaker Pelosi has expressed her confidence that she's got the votes to pass a strong bill right now. And if that's the case, then in theory the bill can just be discharged from the Energy & Commerce Committee. If you've got leadership buy-in, you won't need a discharge petition to do the job. As one alternative, you can, I believe, just bring some other committee's version of the bill to the floor and make an amendment in order that would incorporate whatever the E&C leadership wanted to see written in. I suppose the rule for the bill could by its terms just discharge the E&C committee, as well. If you've got 218 votes, you can pretty much do as you please. But you have to want to do it. And that means that you see long-term upside to telling a significant chunk of your caucus that you're writing them out of the process. That's a tough call. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you're writing them out of everything, though that'll surely be what the Blue Dogs cry about. This despite the fact that they've been able to waylay every single major piece of legislation this year and take some ransom from it.

In the end, this issue is the one for which it was supposed to be so critical to get a Democratic majority. We've got it. Blue Dogs are a faction. An important faction, perhaps. But a faction. Democrats are supposed to be about passing health care reform legislation. Plenty of room for disputes around the margins -- and there have been plenty, to be sure, and the Blue Dogs have done well in them -- but this thing isn't marginal. It's central to the definition of the Democratic Party, and has been for decades. That's going to warrant some rough play, in my book. Blue Dogs will have time to get over it afterwards. And if they can't, then they're Republicans.