From Justin Lake of UBS:
House Leaders Looking At A Tried & True Parliamentary Procedure To Pass The Senate Bill. This is far from certain, as we are at least 9-14 days away from any potential votes, but the House Dem Leadership is looking at avoiding an up or down vote on the Senate passed bill from December 24, 2009 when the House debates the as-of-yet unformulated Budget Reconciliation/FixIt bill. The Leadership is looking to use a procedural maneuver that would be part of a self-executing Rule — a process that has been used from time to time in the House by both parties when they have been in the majority. It would work something like this:
*Before the House takes up the Budget Reconciliation/FixIt bill they would have to adopt a Rule governing the debate as is the normal procedure. The Rule would contain a self executing clause that would state that upon adoption of the Rule and then debate and adoption of the Budget Reconciliation bill that the Senate bill/December 24, 2009 would also be considered as adopted.
*The whole package would then go to the Senate for approval. In this manner, assuming Senate approval, the Senate bill/December 24, 2009 and the Budget Reconciliation/FixIt bill would all be sent along to President Obama at the same time. And nervous House Democrats would be assured that the Senate bill would not move to the President by itself without the Budget Reconciliation/FixIt bill alongside; since many House Dems do not trust the Senate to pass the Budget Reconciliation/FixIt bill once the House has already stuck out its political neck and taken the tough vote.
Understand?
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