White House Negotiating on Health Bill

WASHINGTON — White House officials negotiated furiously on Thursday to keep major health care legislation on track after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said his chamber would not vote on a health measure until after Congress returned from its summer recess.

The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, led a hastily called three-hour negotiating session at the Capitol with conservative Blue Dog Democrats, the group of fiscal hawks who have stalled action on the health care bill in the House.

Mr. Reid’s acknowledgment that the Senate would miss the deadline that President Obama had set for each chamber to pass a bill is a serious, if widely expected, setback for the president. From Shaker Heights, Ohio, Mr. Obama argued against “delay for the sake of delay,” so that lawmakers could avoid taking a controversial stand on legislation to expand health insurance coverage and control medical costs.
While Congress can resume its efforts in the fall, other major items on the president’s agenda, like climate change and rewriting financial regulation, have also been postponed, and are likely to be further delayed until the health care debate is resolved.

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