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Senate Finance Committee Votes 19 - 4 In Favor
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe announces her support for a health care bill Tuesday
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Health care reform advocates got a major boost Tuesday as Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key GOP moderate, announced she will vote for the Senate Finance Committee's $829 billion health care bill.Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe announces her support for a health care bill Tuesday
Snowe, one of the senators in the bipartisan "Gang of Six" that initially negotiated the committee's bill, has been considered one of the few GOP senators likely to support a bill emerging from the Democratic-controlled Congress.
The Finance Committee's upcoming vote -- expected Tuesday -- represents a pivotal step forward in the contentious health care debate. The committee, with 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans, is the last of five congressional panels to consider health care legislation before debate begins in the full House and Senate.
"People do have concerns about what we will do with reform, but at the same time they want us to continue working -- and that is what my vote to approve this bill out of committee represents," Snowe said during the committee's final deliberations on the measure.
"Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress (taking) every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time."
Once the Finance Committee clears the bill, the focus will quickly shift to the closed doors of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office.
The Nevada Democrat must merge the conservative-leaning Finance Committee legislation with a more liberally drawn bill approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
The primary difference between the Finance Committee bill and the health committee legislation involves a government-run insurance company -- the public option.
The health committee bill provides for a robust public option designed to compete head-on with insurance companies and force them to rein in costs.
The Finance Committee ditched the public option in favor of nongovernment-run health care co-ops, a nod to conservative Democrats and Republicans who fear a government takeover of the health care system.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/13/senate.health.care/index.html