UPDATE – 9:10 p.m. – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Roll Call that he believes Democrats can pass health care without the pro-life votes.
But Hoyer’s comments are consistent with what I was told earlier that the leadership has not decided on that course of action.
“I don’t know that we’ve made a collective judgment on it,” said Hoyer, who added that Waxman was correct to say that abortion cannot be handled through the reconciliation process.
Hoyer’s comment — the one that lead to the headline that Hoyer is confident they can get the votes without Stupak and the dozen pro-life votes — was more circumspect.
“We’re working at it and I think the answer is yes, I think we can,” he said.
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I’m told not to put too much stock in the reports that Democrats will press ahead with a health care bill without the support of a dozen pro-life House Democrats.
A reliable source in the House Democratic leadership told me that Rep. Henry Waxman’s comment that Democrats will move ahead without the support of pro-life Democrats is not representative of the leadership’s position at the moment. It could end up being the direction they go in, but they won’t make any such decisions until they have finalized legislative language and a score from the Congressional Budget Office.
As for language, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met at the Capitol this afternoon, and are working toward finalizing by tonight what will be in the reconciliation package, which would alter the final Senate bill if the House passed it.
The goal then is to present legislative language to House members Friday and hopefully a CBO score if it comes in tomorrow.