With a Thanksgiving recess looming, the Senate this week will take steps to open debate on its own health care bill even though it remains unclear whether Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, has the votes to overcome even an initial procedural hurdle.
With those final votes hard to come by, Mr. Reid will no doubt try to use the possibility of working into the weekend or even into Thanksgiving week to try to rally Democrats to back him and provide 60 votes in support of proceeding to the health care measure. If he is successful, the health care plan will still be on the floor waiting when lawmakers return from Thanksgiving and perhaps remain there at least until Christmas.
“When we get on the bill, if we do, there will be a lot of amendments over a lot of weeks,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
Mr. McConnell added: “The Senate is not the House. You saw in the House three votes and it was over in one day. This will be on the floor for quite a long time.”
As the Senate tries to wrap up loose ends on spending bills, lawmakers will
also turn their attention to the Fort Hood shooting.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to convene a hearing Thursday on the shooting in the most high-profile of the Congressional inquiries beginning into the killings at the Army base. While other panels are being briefed, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Republican on the panel, are promising a “sober, methodical investigation,” according to a statement issued Saturday.
Sensitive to complaints that a Congressional inquiry could jeopardize a criminal case, the two senators — who often work closely together — said their investigation will be responsible and apolitical.
“Our goal, and the purpose of this inquiry, is to make as certain as possible that no such attack ever occurs again on an American military base,” the two senators said. “We will focus on national and homeland security and will not compromise the criminal case being conducted by law enforcement.”
In the House, lawmakers have disposed of their health care overhaul for the moment but still have health-related issues to deal with. Democratic leaders plan to forge ahead with a proposal to permanently resolve an annual fight over doctor fees paid by Medicare. The issue is tied up in deficit reduction politics, and the House plan faces resistance in the Senate.