Democrats May Bypass Republicans on Health Plan, New York Sen. Schumer Says

Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus set a Sept. 15 deadline for getting a bipartisan agreement among six senators on the panel who are negotiating a deal.

“If we cannot produce a bipartisan solution by then, you have to wonder if the Republicans would ever be willing to agree to anything,” Schumer said on a conference call with reporters yesterday. “We will enact health-care reform by the end of the year. If the Republicans are not able to produce an agreement, we will have contingencies in play.”

Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said the group of six senators will discuss an exact date this week. “We’ve got to have some kind of stopping point here,” he said.

Schumer said Democrats may invoke the practice of “reconciliation,” which requires only 51 votes for Senate passage. The Democrats control 60 votes, enough to quash Republican efforts to block action on the bill. Party leaders can’t rely on all 60 because of the illnesses of two senators, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

The reconciliation procedure “is clearly one of the contingencies on the table,” said Schumer, a member of the finance panel.