This week, the House of Representatives will embark on what is widely believed to be the final sprint to health care reform. The House Budget Committee is scheduled to begin markup of a reconciliation bill (pdf) on Monday afternoon.  This 2,309-page bill – the Reconciliation Act of 2010 – is expected to be the vehicle for changes to the Senate-passed health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), negotiated between the White House and House and Senate Democrats. The reconciliation bill also includes changes to the federal student lending program that would switch the program to direct federal loans.

After the loss of a 60-seat Democratic supermajority in the Senate, Democratic Congressional leaders are turning to the budget reconciliation process to complete health care reform. Because it is in the form of a budget reconciliation measure, the Senate would need only a simple majority to approve it. Although the reconciliation bill currently contains many of the elements – including the public health insurance option – from the House-approved Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), these provisions are expected to be deleted and replaced with the agreed-upon compromise language. In a series of parliamentary maneuvers, a House vote on the Senate-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and on this reconciliation package could come by the end of the week.

It is all but assured that no House Republicans will vote in favor of the Senate health care bill, so Democrats are scrambling to shore up the minimum 216 votes needed for passage. Assuming the House has the necessary votes to pass the Senate bill and the reconciliation measure, the reconciliation measure would also have to be approved by the Senate.

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