In a move that may turn out to be as irrelevant as it is unexpected, the Senate could vote on the House health care bill next week.
Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate said on Tuesday they hope to bring a long-delayed healthcare bill to the floor next week, kicking off a tough fight that may well spill into next year.
A vast healthcare overhaul has been stalled in the Senate for a month, but gained new urgency on Saturday when the House of Representatives passed a bill designed to rein in costs, extend coverage to millions of uninsured and bar practices such as denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid and his No. 2, Dick Durbin, said they hoped to bring the Senate's healthcare bill to the floor next week and to have the first procedural vote on whether to open debate.
This move is about political manuevering. The majority of Senators do not support major provisions in the House bill - including the employer mandate and tax surcharge that would fall largely on small business owners. They could bring the House bill for a vote, defeat it, and then turn 100% of the attention to the legislation advanced by the Senate Finance Committee.
In Washington, that's called progress.




