Main Page | Recent changes | View source | Page history

Printable version | Disclaimers | Privacy policy

Not logged in
Log in | Help
 

House - January 12, 2007

From dKosopedia

House - January 12, 2007 - week 2
110th - United States Congress
Image:US-House.jpg
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Previous January 11, 2007
Next January 15, 2007


This is the daily summary of the actions in United States House of Representatives in the 110th United States Congress for January 12, 2007 during week 2 of this Congress' term. For a summary of the actions in the Senate click here, and for Congress as a whole on this date, click here.


Contents

House Daily Summary

Overview

Jan. 12 is the fourth day of the Democrats’ “100 Hours” agenda. Per the plans announced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) earlier last week, the House debated H.R. 4, also known as the “Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007”.

The House was gaveled into session at 9 A.M. and began business by approving H.Res. 56, a resolution introduced by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appointing a few House members to additional committee assignments. The House then followed to consider H.R. 4, which is detailed below. The House finished its anticipated legislative business of the day by approving H.Res. 60, another committee appointment resolution.

Summary of Today’s Legislative Activity

Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007 (H.R. 4)

Passes 255-170 (Roll Call Vote No. 23) | Text of H.R. 4

____

Path to Action

H.R. 4 was introduced by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) on Jan. 5, 2007. It was submitted with 198 co-sponsors. Pursuant to the rules laid out in Title IV of H.Res. 6, the bill leapfrogged the committee process and moved right to the House floor. A three-hour session of debate began at 9:34 A.M. on Jan. 12, 2007. A final vote was called for at 1:36 P.M., but was interrupted by a motion introduced by the Republican caucus to table the bill and recommit it to the House Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. That motion failed by a vote of 229-196. Following that result, proceedings continued and a final vote was called for. H.R. 4 was passed by a vote of 255-170. Legislative Analysis

Current law, established under the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003, specifically prohibits the HHS Secretary from lobbying drug companies to lower prices, opting instead to rely on market forces to make these medicines affordable. H.R. 4, in its most basic description, requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies in hopes of lowering drug prices for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

It also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report every six months to the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Oversight and Government Reform in the House and the Committee on Finance in the Senate on whether and to what extent negotiations have lowered the price of drugs for Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

This law will affect prices for plans entered into or continued after January 1, 2008.

Political Analysis

H.R. 4 did not receive enough votes to override a veto. President Bush has promised to do so. Therefore, the legislation in its current form will not be what is eventually passed into law. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) is resistant to the House approach and is likely to seek out a compromise with moderate Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that allows, but does not require, government negotiations to lower drug prices. The extent to which House Democrats will go along with what they will see as a watered-down version of their bill remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: The Senate does not have enough votes to override a veto, thus change to the bill is required to appease enough Senators to vote with the Democratic leadership.

More Information

Who is Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)?

What is the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit?

How did my Congressperson vote on this legislation?

Where did you read that President Bush will veto this legislation?

I want more information on the Democratic position on H.R. 4.

I want more information on the Republican position on H.R. 4.

On the Floor

The above link is to the consolidated congressional record of what occured on the floor of the House on this date.

NOTE: This area's structure and format are still in development.
This note should be removed when content is added, by removing the {{House Daily Floor-NO CONTENT}} code from the article this message appears within.

In the Committees

The above link is to the consolidated congressional record of what occured in any House committees that had activity on this date.

Note: This area's structure and format are still in development. The above header text will become a link to a culled and consolidated portions congressional record of the committees of the House that had activity on the date this page is about. This blurb here will also eventually have a format on how to link to the relevant committee articles in the Congressional Committees Project. I envision that the portions of the congressional record that will be at this link (formated similar to the floor portions of the record would be a also utilized (and with luck, maintained by those signing up for the various committees by that project.
This note should be removed when content is added, by removing the {{House Daily Committees-NO CONTENT}} code from the article this message appears within.

Resources

See also

References

External Links

Related areas

Retrieved from "http://localhost../../../h/o/u/House_-_January_12%2C_2007_51e9.html"

This page was last modified 00:48, 4 February 2007 by dKosopedia user Lestatdelc. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


[Main Page]
Daily Kos
DailyKos FAQ

View source
Discuss this page
Page history
What links here
Related changes

Special pages
Bug reports