GOP lawmaker delays departure from the House, complicating healthcare math

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Rep. Nathan Deal, a Georgia Republican, announced Thursday that he will delay his resignation from the House so that he can vote against the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul.

The decision to stay complicates an already confusing search for the number of votes needed in the House to pass a Senate version of healthcare, the first step in what will probably include the use of budget reconciliation in the Senate. Democrats now need to find 217 votes to act, instead of the 216 needed if Deal had stepped down.

Deal had said he would leave early in March, but announced he was pushing his resignation back until later in the month because of the expected healthcare vote.

‘Yesterday, as I listened to President Obama’s aggressive push for a quick vote on ‘Obama-Care,’ it was clear that I must stay in Congress and continue to fight against the most liberal healthcare agenda ever proposed,’ Deal stated.

While Democratic Party leaders are weighing how to proceed on healthcare, the most likely scenario is for the House to pass the Senate version, which many Democrats, both liberal and conservative, dislike – but for different reasons. The House can then act on amendments that the Senate will pass using reconciliation, which means a simple majority would be enough, rather than a supermajority of 60 votes.

The White House is hoping to get a House vote by March 18, when the president is scheduled to leave on a trip to Asia, though House leaders have said a vote may come later, before the Easter break at the end of the month.
If Deal had left, there would have been 431 members of the House, so 216 votes would have been enough to pass the healthcare bill. With Deal staying, Democrats are hurt two ways: They need an extra vote, 217, and there is another sure no vote available for the GOP.

Republican leaders immediately praised Deal for deciding to stay on.

“The House is the last line of defense against this 2,700-page big government monstrosity, and the American people need every vote they can get in the effort to stop it from being enacted,” House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio stated. “Nathan Deal’s decision to remain in Congress for the upcoming healthcare vote is indicative of his long dedication to standing up for a common-sense approach to changing healthcare. I’m pleased I can count on him now, just as I have during our years of service together in the House.”

--Noam N. Levey, reporting from Washington

--Michael Muskal, reporting from Los Angeles