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Amid growing concerns that Congress was moving too fast to give sufficient attention to health care reform legislation in an attempt to meet a self-imposed August deadline, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced that the U.S. Senate will not vote on health care legislation until September, after the August recess.
Reid told reporters that a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers on the key Senate Finance Committee continues to meet behind closed doors. The negotiations, led by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), have resulted in significant progress toward producing a bill, but senators still have not reached agreement on all the major issues. Their new goal is to report a bill out of the committee before leaving Washington next week.
In the House of Representatives, conservative House Democrats say that Congress is far from fulfilling President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling health care, making it unlikely that the House will pass a bill before the recess. Members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition are demanding additional cost savings before they agree to support the $1 trillion legislation. First-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and opposed to allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private industry have also slowed the process.
The Washington Post reported that the business community, which in the past has always led the effort to scuttle health care reform, is not united in opposing the current reform proposals. While many businesses continue to vehemently oppose mandates, a few large companies, such as Wal-Mart, have endorsed them. ASA continues to express serious concern about employer mandates in principle while urging members of Congress to ensure that any fees that Congress may impose can be prorated on an hourly basis to accommodate employers of temporary employees and other workers whose hours fluctuate.
ASA also believes that employees should have a required minimum connection with an employer before the employer is charged a fee. The association is urging that any legislation include a provision requiring employees to work at least 90 days and satisfy a minimum weekly hours test before employer payments are imposed-similar to the health care law adopted in San Francisco. For more information on the ASA proposal and a sample letter you can send to your senator, visit americanstaffing.net.
by Toby Malara