UPDATE: Deal Reached on 9/11 Health Bill [View All]

[tishaLA]

Talks over the 9/11 health bill are at an impasse after Senator Tom Coburn refused to back down off his demand that the bill's price tag come down, casting doubt on whether it can pass today, according to multiple sources on both sides of the talks.

Senator Chuck Schumer said this morning that a vote on the measure is set for this afternoon. But according to a Senate Democratic aide, Harry Reid's office has not agreed to this yet, because Senator Coburn is still holding out against it. What's more, the vote may be held up by Republicans who are delaying the New START final vote to avoid the showdown over the 9/11 bill.

The current state of play, which is changing rapidly, is a bit at odds with the public picture of what's happening. The impression you get from liberal blogs and MSNBC is that Republicans are under such intense pressure to pass this that they are about to crack. While things are certainly trending this way in some respects, it's not assured.

Supporters of the bill remain confident that they have the votes to pass the bill with the help of a handful of GOP moderates, and they say rank and file Republicans, desperate to put the issue behind them, are insisting that their leadership agree to the bill. But the picture is complex, and the outstanding issue remains when it can pass. <...> http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/12/supporters_of_911_bill_not_sur.html">Plum Line

New link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/12/supporters_of_911_bill_not_sur.html

<...> Besides cutting the price for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act from $6.2 billion, the time span was also significantly limited to five years each for the health treatment program and the reopened 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund.

Other concessions that negotiators had to make to Coburn and Enzi included a hard cap on lawyers' fees at 10%, and even stronger reporting requirements and Government Accountability Office reviews than were already in the bill.

Although people who took money from the recent 9/11 lawsuit were already accounted for in the Zadroga bill, Republicans insisted on stronger language ensuring they could not double-dip, and get money both from the legal deal and the bill.<...>

so even with this, they held a gun to the head of the first responders and begged the Democrats to allow them to pull the trigger.