While many believed that the public option had died as Democrats attempt to push health care reform through Congress, comments from a Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., spokesman to a progressive political action campaign suggest that it could be revived in the Senate if the House passes it first.
Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker told the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, "Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over."
"Conversely, the Leaders will whip against any attempt to alter or amend the bill if the public option is not in it," he added.
Subsequently, the PCCC concluded that, if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., can pass the public option in the House, the full weight of Senate leadership would push the public option across the finish line in the Senate.
A joint statement from the PCCC, Democracy for America, and Credo Action said, "The fate of the public option is now in Nancy Pelosi's hands."
"The votes and the leadership are there in the Senate, and the public option will live or die based on Nancy Pelosi's next moves," the three groups added. "She's been a hero on this issue in the past, and we hope that she steps up at this historic moment."
The PCCC said it is launching online ads in Washington D.C. and San Francisco noting that the public option is now in Pelosi's hands. The PCCC, the DFA, and Credo also said they would put thousands of calls into Pelosi's office.
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