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 re-
form 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 infor-
mation 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 Rep-
resentatives have the necessary cost information before 
any vote on health care reform legislation in the House; 
Whereas, on September 24, 2009, The Hill newspaper re-
ported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi ‘‘has committed to a 
72-hour waiting period between posting healthcare legis-
lation 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 Manage-
ment 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 of-
fice capable of estimating changes in national spending 
on health care of pending legislation and recently esti-
mated that one version of health reform legislation pend-
ing 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 Mem-
ber 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives should 
not consider H.R. 3200, H.R. 3962, or any related health 
care reform legislation in the 111th Congress until the Of-
fice of the Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Med-
icaid Services has made its estimate the financial effects 
of such legislation publicly available for at least 72 hours. 
Æ 
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