During her weekly press briefing Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., revealed that the public option will not be a part of health care reform legislation.
"We had it, we wanted it ... it's not in the reconciliation," Pelosi said. "It isn't in there because [the Senate doesn't] have the votes to have it in there."
She did provide some solace for those who had supported the public option, saying, "While it may not have a public option, we have a purpose of the public option served by the exchanges."
The decision comes despite the fact that a spokesperson for Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made comments Friday indicating that the public option could be revived in the Senate if the House passes it first.
"Senator Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over," Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker told the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
He added, "Conversely, the Leaders will whip against any attempt to alter or amend the bill if the public option is not in it."
The PCCC suggested that, if Pelosi could pass the public option in the House, the full weight of Senate leadership would push the public option across the finish line in the Senate.
Despite all the comments that the public option could be revived, Pelosi's declaration Friday pretty much put a halt to all of that.
Originally, the House passed a version of health care reform legislation that included a public option. However, the Senate's bill did not include the public option, and support for the public option in the Senate was non-existent among Republicans. Even among Democrats, support for the public option was not enough for it to pass a Senate vote.
This had caused some Democratic lawmakers to push for the Senate to vote through health care reform with reconciliation, where the Senate would only need 51 votes to pass legislation instead of 60.
In the last few weeks, 41 Democrats in the Senate signed a petition to push for a reconciliation vote on the public option, though Pelosi's decision to drop support for it has all but rendered their efforts moot.
In addition, Pelosi used her press briefing to dismiss the idea that the House would try and rapidly push through legislation by a March 18 deadline set by the White House, saying the House will take "whatever time is required for us to pass the legislation."
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