What is the Deadline for the Vote?

Hoyer Backtracks On March 18 Deadline, Hopes To Vote On Health Reform Before Easter Recess

The White House is pushing the House to pass the Senate’s health care bill by the end of next week, but Democratic leaders have rebuffed the administration’s deadlines. “He was certainly informed that we don’t feel we want any deadlines assigned to us,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said after a healthcare strategy meeting between House and Senate Democratic leaders and Rahm Emanuel. Democrats appear to be about 10 votes short of securing the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate reform bill and Republicans are fanning the flames of discontent. Over the last few weeks Republicans have promised to hold Democrats accountable for their original vote on the Senate package and tried to scare House members by arguing that there’s no guarantee that the Senate will approve a reconciliation package.
This morning, during an appearance on The Today Show, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) — who yesterday morning said that “None of us has mentioned the 18th other than Mr. Gibbs” — initially suggested that the administration’s March 18 deadline was doable, before pushing it back to March 26, the beginning of Easter recess:

VIEIRA: Quickly, Congressman Hoyer and also Congressman Cantor, yes or no, will this bill be voted on before the president leaves for Asia on March 18th? Congressman Hoyer, yes or no?
HOYER: That’s our objective.
VIEIRA: And congressman Cantor?
CANTOR: Meredith, all I can say…
HOYER: Meredith, let me recall that ….
CANTOR: Is if it was a good bill, we’d be voting on it now, wouldn’t have to be talking about circumventing the rules….
HOYER: There is no circumventing of the rules and Mr. Cantor knows there’s no circumventing of the rules. And when I said the 18th, we hope to have this vote before we break for the Easter Break.

Watch the somewhat awkward exchange:
It’s certainly frustrating to hear Hoyer say that he’s merely “hoping” to pass something before Easter break, since a vote after the break would probably fail. Convincing ‘no’ votes to switch to ‘yes’ is a heavy lift in Washington, but it will be almost impossible after lawmakers attend August-style town halls in their districts.
But then again, the White House really set itself up for failure by enforcing an unrealistic (if past experience is any indicator) deadline. The reality is, we won’t have final action until the reconciliation instructions expire in April (once Congress passes a new budget) and lawmakers are literally pressed into action.