On the recordMarch 18, 2010
I have heard this process whereby the House is going to deem the Senate bill passed and then pass a reconciliation bill which will then be sent over to the Senate as Speaker Pelosi is asking Members of the House to hold hands and jump off a political cliff, hoping the Senate will catch them by passing the reconciliation bill unaltered or just in the same form that it passed the House. But is it not true that complications arise in section 313 of the Congressional Budget Act because of the Byrd rule? We have heard a lot of talk about the Byrd rule, what points of order might be appropriate in the Senate. I wonder if the Senator--he touched on this a moment ago--would explain, with 41 Senators agreeing to sustain all points of order in the Senate, how many different holes can be punched in the reconciliation bill passed by the House when points of order are sustained. The Senator from New Hampshire mentioned the Cadillac tax. I note that the president of AFL-CIO was visiting with President Obama at the White House on Wednesday seeking further reassurances that the tax on the Cadillac plans would be deferred, and presumably that would be part of the reconciliation bill. Can the Senator from New Hampshire explain what kind of jeopardy the Byrd rule and points of order call into play that would make it unlikely that the President's promise to defer the tax on union Cadillac plans could pass the Senate?
