Blue Dog Deal Means No Vote on Health Before Recess

The House will not vote on a health care bill before the August recess, the Hill reports. Rep. Henry Waxman agreed to the delay as part of a deal with “Blue Dog” Democrats on his Energy and Commerce Committee, who had been threatening to block the bill. Waxman now expects the committee to finish marking up the bill by Friday.

Waxman and the Blue Dogs also agreed on $100 billion in trims from the bill, another of the conservative faction’s key demands. The bill’s so-called employer mandate would include businesses with payrolls of $500,000, instead of $400,000, and allow states to create insurance “co-ops” that would compete with the public option. (More health care reform stories.)