3.16.06
UPDATE:
SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION
On March 15, REALTORS® and small business people won a HUGE victory in our legislative battle to get passage of the small business health care legislation. S.1955, The Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2006 passed the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), now sending this monumental bill onto the full Senate for a vote. NAR has worked closely with Senate sponsor, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and the bill’s chief cosponsors, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE.) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) in crafting a bill that would pass the Senate. We are now another major step closer to enactment.
For the first time, small business health plan legislation was voted out of a U.S. Senate Committee. If the Senate passes the legislation, the Senate will join the House of Representatives that passed HR 525, their version of small business health plans legislation, in 2005. Passage of small business health would dramatically improve the health care coverage available to millions of families of small businesses and self-employed workers like REALTORS.
President Bush has stated repeatedly that he will sign the small business health plan legislation if passed by Congress.
There is no doubt in Congress that passage of the small business health plan legislation in the HELP Committee is a major win for REALTORS®. NAR’s determination and strong leadership on the issue, and more importantly the huge outpouring of letters from our members, over 260,000 to the Hill, has been powerful (shock and awe) and has gotten the attention of Washington lawmakers While this legislative victory is welcome and should be celebrated, we cannot rest now. Here’s some perspective of what we face.
REALTORS® have much work ahead if the Senate is to pass the health plans legislation. Frankly, this is going to be hard work. Today’s HELP Committee vote shows the difficult reality. The HELP Committee vote was on a strict party-line vote of 11 to 9 (Republicans-Democrats). Some Democrat Senators are already talking about a filibuster in the Senate to prevent S.1955 from passing. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster and allow a bill to come up for a vote on final passage. There are 55 Republican and 45 Democrat Senators in the U.S. Senate. Over the next couple of weeks, we will need to identify 60 confirmed votes to end a filibuster.
NAR is committed to using all resources to wage this battle in the Senate. Here’s what to expect:
- We will have fly-ins of our Federal political Coordinators
- An intensified effort by NAR president Tom Stevens in targeted states, securing the support of State Presidents in support of S. 1955.
- A major Call for Action to every NAR member in early April to make their voice heard, and to tell the Senate the time has come to get small business health plans passed.
NAR is working on media coverage and advertising in all fifty states urging US Senators to pass the legislation.
REALTORS® now have a real shot at victory on one of the most important issues of our members.