Republicans Try to Force House Vote on Senate Health Care Bill

With a firestorm brewing over the possibility that House Democrats' will try to avoid an up-or-down vote on the Senate health care bill, House Republicans plan to use a maneuver Thursday morning to force a vote on the measure.

Rep. Parker Griffith, the Alabama Democrat who switched to the Republican Party last year over health care reform, offered a resolution on the House floor Thursday morning to force the chamber to hold a roll call vote on the Senate-passed health bill. Parker spoke on the House floor after an unusual meeting between all House Republicans and all Senate Republicans.

Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised the possibility that the Rules Committee could use a legislative procedure to deem the Senate bill to have passed the House when a package of changes to the bill passes, thus avoiding a difficult vote on the underlying bill. The measure passed by the Senate contains a number of provisions that House Democrats have strong objections to.

"A lot of our members don't want to vote for it," Pelosi said Tuesday.

Republicans have excoriated the speaker and other House leaders for considering the procedure, even though it has been used by both parties many times in the past. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) called it "a flagrant abuse of the legislative process" and said, "The American people have a right to watch their elected representatives cast their votes on an issue that will impact every American life."