IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 883 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Members of the 

House receive the necessary cost information regarding health care reform legislation at least 72 hours before any vote on such legislation. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 2, 2009 

Mr. HERGER (for himself, Mr. CAMP, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. RYAN

of Wisconsin, Mr. NUNES, and Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Rules 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

Members of the House receive the necessary cost information regarding health care reform legislation at least 

72 hours before any vote on such legislation. 

Whereas it is imperative that Members of the House of Representatives have the necessary cost information before 

any vote on health care reform legislation in the House; 

Whereas, on September 24, 2009, The Hill newspaper reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi ‘‘has committed to a 

72-hour waiting period between posting healthcare legislation online and a final vote on the bill’’; 

Whereas the Office of the Actuary (OACT) for the Centers 

for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible 


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•HRES 883 IH 

for estimating ‘‘the financial effects of proposals to create 

national health insurance systems’’; 

Whereas Peter Orszag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, stated on February 23, 2009, that the 

‘‘single most important thing we can do to improve the 

long-term fiscal health of our Nation is slow the growth 

rate in health care costs’’; 

Whereas the OACT is the only non-partisan Government office capable of estimating changes in national spending 

on health care of pending legislation and recently estimated that one version of health reform legislation pending in Congress would dramatically increase, rather than 

decrease, total United States spending on health care; 

Whereas, when Congress debated the Medicare Prescription 

Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 

(Public Law 108–173), the New York Times reported on 

March 25, 2004, that ‘‘Democrats complained that they 

had been misled’’ when they were denied access to CMS’ 

analysis; 

Whereas Representative Charles Rangel, then the Ranking 

Member on the Ways and Means Committee stated, on 

March 25, 2004, in reference to the OACT’s analysis of 

that Act, that ‘‘there is a need that we have integrity 

with professional actuaries and that they can report the 

information as needed, not wanted, by the Congress’’; 

Whereas Representative Pete Stark, then the Ranking Member on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, 

stated on March 25, 2004, that ‘‘there is no doubt in my 

mind that [that Act] would not have been enacted had 

these estimates and analyses [from the OACT] been 

made public during the process’’; and 


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•HRES 883 IH 

Whereas it is critical for Members and the American public 

to have a complete and full understanding of the cost and 

impact of health care reform: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives should 

2 not consider H.R. 3200, H.R. 3962, or any related health 

3 care reform legislation in the 111th Congress until the Of4 fice of the Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Med5 icaid Services has made its estimate the financial effects 

6 of such legislation publicly available for at least 72 hours. 

Æ 


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