The US Senate – The Fly In The Healthcare Ointment

The House has passed the Senate Healthcare Bill, and separately passed a package of amendments to the Bill to be sent to the Senate for approval. But what if the Senate decides to not consider these amendments? What if the GOP mounts a successful filibuster? THEN WHAT?

Months ago when the Senate passed its Bill, the Senate was unwilling to negotiate with the House in Conference Committee. Now there is nothing to stop the Senate from allowing their Bill to be signed into Law by the President, and then simply ignore the House Amendments. The House has passed the Senate Bill without any changes, and sent it to the President to be signed. This is the process the Constitution calls for. And the Senate would not be wrong if they ignored the House Amendments.

Why? You ask. Simple The Constitution states that both houses of Congress must pass an identical bill, which is then presented to the President to be signed. The House did not like the Senate Bill, the House wanted changes. What was supposed to happen is the House was supposed to Amend the Bill to reflect the changes the House wanted, and then send the Bill back to the Senate to be voted on for agreement, before sending the completed bill to the President. Of course this is not what happened. The system, which has worked for more than 200 years, was taking too long for the President and the Party in control of Congress to get what they wanted, so they decided to work outside the rules to get this Bill and a host of amendments passed separately; all in the name of the “good of the American people".

Now we have a Bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President with all these amendments waiting on the Senate to approve to make the House happy. The Senate for its part was already happy, and their Bill is now law. So what reason do they have for any further debate? NONE!

Or the Senate could take up the amendments from the House, and the Republicans block a vote by the full Senate. Then we would again be without the House amendments making the, now Law, complete.

If the Senate fails to pass the House Amendments, the scenarios are too numerous to consider.

No matter the outcome we as a country have ventured down a path that our forefather took such great care to help us avoid. The Constitutional questions this bill and amendments present our country, and our Judiciary, are mind boggling.

What Pandora’s Box have we opened, and can we ever get it closed again?

Call and tell Congress this cannot happen again; I have!

Gerald