Pelosi May Skip Vote on Senate Health Care Bill

Nancy Pelosi thinks she can pass the Senate health care bill in the House without forcing members to vote on it. Instead, she’d have lawmakers vote on a package of popular fixes for the Senate bill, and deploy a House rule that allows that vote to be used to “deem” the health care bill to be passed, the Washington Post explains.

The procedural trick, which is known as the “self-executing rule” or "deem and pass" is fairly common, though it’s never been used on anything as large as health care reform. “It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know,” Pelosi told bloggers yesterday. “But I like it, because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.” House Democrats are loath to pass the Senate bill on its own, without guaranteed fixes. (More health care reform stories.)