SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE APPROVES NECESSARY AMENDMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS

SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE APPROVES NECESSARY AMENDMENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS TO SENATE BUDGET BILL On Friday, March 23, 2007, the Senate Budget Committee unanimously approved an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution (S.Con.Res.21) that provides the necessary financial foundation for any proposal to create a market-based pooling plan for small business healthcare insurance. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) and cosponsored by Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Max Baucus (D-MT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), John Thune (R-SD), and David Vitter (R-LA), creates a funding reserve fund that could be used in the event that the Senate develops a bill to allow market-based small business health care pooling plans. While this is not a legislative fix for the problems faced by the small business and self-employed community, it is a very public commitment by the major Senate players in the healthcare debate to work together on a new proposal to find healthcare coverage for small business. Senators Enzi and Nelson introduced bipartisan small business pooling legislation, S. 1955, in the last Congress and garnered 55 votes on the floor of the Senate – a clear majority, but 5 votes short of the necessary super-majority to get past a Senate filibuster. For more information on this issue, please

CONTACT: Marcia Salkin, msalkin@realtors.org, mailto:msalkin@realtors.org , 202-383-1092 or Jamie Gregory, jgregory@realtors.org, mailto:jgregory@realtors.org, 202-383-1027.