As Congress returns to Washington, D.C., from a two-week recess, Montana Sen. Max Baucus and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy are resuming their strong push for healthcare reform.
Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Kennedy, chair of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, have told President Barack Obama that they would finish writing legislation that would “provide coverage to all Americans” by early June.
The senior Democrats wrote a similar letter to the president in February. Here’s what the senators penned the president Monday:
Dear Mr. President:
For nearly a year, we have been working together toward the shared goal of significant reforms to our health care system. We must act swiftly, because the cost of inaction is too high for individuals, families, businesses, state and federal governments. Comprehensive health care reform legislation will responsibly contain costs, improve quality, enhance disease prevention, and provide coverage to all Americans. We are committed to working with you, and with our colleagues in Congress, to enact legislation to achieve these long-overdue reforms without delay. We are writing to you today to let you know of the schedule for committee action that we intend to follow to meet this goal.
Since our committees share jurisdiction over health care reform legislation in the Senate, we have jointly laid out an aggressive schedule to accomplish our goal. Both committees plan to mark-up legislation in early June. Our intention is for that legislation to be very similar, and to reflect a shared approach to reform, so that the measures that our two committees report can be quickly merged into a single bill for consideration on the Senate floor.