WASHINGTON (AP) — Short on votes, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives offered fresh concessions Friday night to anti-abortion lawmakers and worked to ease the concerns of Hispanic holdouts as they struggled to round up the support needed to pass sweeping health care legislation.
President Barack Obama lobbied by phone to save his top domestic priority, an expansion of coverage that Democrats have sought for more than a half-century.
Voting is set for Saturday on the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that embraces Obama's top domestic goals of extending health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and putting tough new restrictions on health insurance companies. But House leaders said Friday the vote could be pushed back a day or more.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over late-night meetings with Democratic abortion foes, whose votes were critical to the bill's fate, then with supporters of abortion rights, who are among the health legislation's biggest advocates in the House.
It was not clear precisely what changes were under discussion.
In general, abortion opponents want to outlaw pregnancy-ending services under a government insurance option envisioned in the legislation, except in instances of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Additionally, they want strict limits on abortion coverages within a so-called nationwide insurance exchange where private firms would sell policies.
Abortion rights' supporters generally want to permit coverage as long as individuals use their own money rather than federal subsidies designed to help defray the cost of insurance they could not otherwise afford.
"I think we have a fundamental disagreement in this issue. That's a reality," Rep. Henry Waxman, a supporter of abortion rights, said after hours of closed-door talks on the issue.
Aides to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also participated in the discussions, after the organization wrote lawmakers it would oppose the legislation without changes to eliminate a "fundamental flaw" on abortion.
Obama was set to make a personal appeal to the Democratic rank and file in a visit to Capitol Hill Friday. That was called off late Thursday after the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and rescheduled for Saturday.
The House effort picked up two major endorsements Thursday, from the powerful seniors' lobby AARP and the American Medical Association.
Action on health legislation was slowed in the Senate as lawmakers waited for the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on a bill written by Majority Leader Harry Reid in consultation with the White House and key committee chairmen. Senate votes could be pushed back until next year, but in the House Democratic leaders pressed forward.
Passage by the House would be a major step toward fashioning a bill to present to Obama to sign into law. Subsequent moves are likely to be substantially more difficult. The Senate, sharply divided on what the bill should look like, still must act, and differences between the two bills must be reconciled into a single document.
House leaders expressed optimism that when it came time to vote, they would have the majority needed to prevail in the 435-seat chamber. The 100-member Senate is more closely divided with Democrats and their supporters needing 60 votes to get legislation passed.
Asked Thursday if she had the votes, Pelosi, the House leader, replied: "We will."
Pelosi and other Democratic leaders were finalizing language to bar federal funding of abortion and resolving a flare-up over the treatment of illegal immigrants in the legislation that had Hispanic lawmakers up in arms.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus object to a provision in the Senate legislation — backed by the White House — that bars illegal immigrants from buying health insurance within a proposed new marketplace, or exchange, even if they use their own money to buy from private companies.
Illegal immigrants can buy private health insurance now, so some lawmakers say the White House position goes too far.
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Associated Press writers David Espo and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
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