The House Energy and Commerce Committee was preparing at press time Friday to approve healthcare reform legislation, a move that would send the House version of the historic legislation to the House floor for a vote in September.
Meanwhile, negotiations stalled in the Senate, where 6 members of the Finance Committee had been near a deal on bipartisan legislation that was expected to be the template for any final legislation.
That was because the Republican congressional leadership persuaded 2 of the 3 Republican members of the bipartisan group to delay action until fall.
The Senate Democratic leadership confirmed Thursday night that a vote on legislation by the Senate Finance Committee before the August recess is unlikely.
The House leaves today for its recess; the Senate Aug. 7. Both resume work Sept. 8.
The Obama administration had hoped for both the House and Senate to compete work on competing bills by the August recess, setting the stage for fall talks on a final bill.
But a Washington investment analysis group had predicted the delay.
"This will push out passage until sometime in September, setting the date for a conference with the House bill in the fourth quarter," said an investment note by Washington Analysis.
"This would conform to our view that enactment of healthcare reform will not take place until the fourth quarter or the first quarter of 2010," the note added.
The Republican leadership hopes to use the one-month summer recess period to put pressure on majority Democrats to start over in the fall in the face of voter opposition.
The legislation scheduled for vote by the E&C panel, probably along party lines, is substantially scaled back from legislation passed earlier by two other House committees, the Ways and Means Committee and the Education Labor Committee.
But it still contains provisions of concern to the insurance industry, including a so-called "public option," creation of health exchanges as a means of providing information on the costs of competing plans, including plans, and an employer mandate.
But some tough provisions have been agreed to by the industry.
These include mandates requiring insurers to sell or renew policies regardless of an individual's health status, and barring them from excluding coverage for treatments based on pre-existing health conditions.
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