Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu cast a crucial vote Saturday to move ahead with debate on a landmark health care reform bill. Landrieu, of Louisiana, was one of 60 senators who voted to move the bill forward. That was the minimum number Democrats needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Saturday’s action clears the way for the Senate to begin debate on the bill after the Thanksgiving break.
Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana voted with his party against the move to advance the measure.
Landrieu, of Louisiana, was one of a few moderate Democrats who had not said before Saturday how she would vote on the procedural motion. She said earlier Saturday there’s no guarantee she will back the bill when it comes up for a final vote.
“There are enough significant reforms and safeguards in this bill to move forward,” she said on the Senate floor. “But much more work needs to be done.’’
Landrieu, chairwoman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, has focused on how small businesses would fare under the bill. The House passed its own version of health care reform legislation on Nov. 7.
Under both bills, insurers would be barred from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and could not set lifetime coverage limits.
Landrieu narrowly won re-election in the 2002 mid-term election. She defeated Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans. Some experts and pundits had considered Landrieu as a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election before Kerry's selection of then- Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. With the departure of John Breaux from the Senate in December 2004, his seat being taken by Republican David Vitter, Landrieu became Louisiana's senior senator.
She has made securing funding for Louisiana projects one of her top priorities as a US Senator. She has also held high profile hearings on the mistakes of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In a break from her previous two close elections, she won a relatively comfortable 52% to 46% re-election to a third term on November 4, 2008, in a race against her challenger, Louisiana State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in 2007.
On December 15, 2008, it was announced that Landrieu would become Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the 111th Congress upon resignation of Vice President-elect Joe Biden. Landrieu supports eliminating the estate tax permanently, and voted for the tax cut passed in 2001. On November 17, 2005, she was one of only four Democrats to vote against repealing the portions of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 that more Democrats have charged unfairly benefit the wealthy. She voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. In 2004, Landrieu was one of only six Democrats to vote against renewing the ban on semi-automatic firearms. She has also been one of the few Democrats to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Landrieu voted for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005, but in 2006, she opposed Samuel Alito, though she did vote in favor of cloture to send the nomination to an up-or-down vote.
Subsequent to the 2006 midterm election, in which the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of Congress, Landrieu announced (along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine) the formation of the "Common Ground Coalition", a group of moderate senators of both parties, with the goal of finding bipartisan consensus on legislative matters.
Landrieu is opposed to the public health insurance option in the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
Responding to a question on popular support of the public option, Landrieu said the option has popular support because “when people hear ‘public option’ they hear ‘free health care.’ Everybody wants free health care. Everybody wants health care they don’t have to pay for.”
She has described the bill as 'imperfect, but taking many steps to improve our broken health care system.'
Change Congress launched television ads noting the $1.6 million Landrieu has received from health and insurance companies, and attacking her for what appears to be an example of special interests contributions distorting her position on the public option contrary to the desires of constituents.However, this was not as effective as a rewrite to the bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
She was supportive of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which places limits on taxpayer-funded abortions in the context of the November 2009 Affordable Health Care for America Act.
