Senate panel OKs healthcare plan, 14-9
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Committee passage of healthcare reform legislation Tuesday was a "critical milestone" in changing the U.S. healthcare system, President Barack Obama said.
The $829 billion bill that emerged from the Senate Finance Committee on a 14-9 vote was a product of "vigorous debate and difficult negotiations" Obama said.
"Today we reached a critical milestone in an effort to reform our healthcare system," Obama said, later adding his thanks to Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, "for her political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she's demonstrated throughout this process."
Snowe broke party ranks and joined all committee Democrats to pass the bill.
Obama said heavy lifting remained to merge five separate bills -- two in the Senate and three in the House -- into one proposal in each chamber.
The bill approved Tuesday, put before the committee by Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is the only one of five healthcare plans in Congress that does not contain a public health insurance option, offering instead healthcare cooperatives to compete with private insurance carriers.
The Senate Finance Committee vote "brought us significantly closer to bring us to the core objectives" outlined in September, Obama said. He said the bill must provide security for people with insurance, options for those who don't, curbs on behavior by insurance companies, offer an insurance exchange for one-stop, comparison shopping and be revenue neutral.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, representing pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, called the vote an "important step" toward affordable healthcare to millions of Americans.
"We recognize that a lot of work remains in both chambers, but we're still convinced that the Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan bill is the best blueprint for comprehensive health care reform, and we are going to do our part to try and get a bill on the President's desk this year," said Billy Tauzin, the organization's president and chief executive officer.
So. Calif. fire areas may get mudslides
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- California residents forced out of their homes by dry-season wildfires faced evacuation Tuesday because of the risk of wet-season mudslides, officials said.
Mandatory evacuations were issued for 65 homes in Davenport in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Monterey, KGO-TV reported. They are in an area burned by the Lockheed Fire.
The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for fire-ravaged areas around Santa Barbara and for areas near Los Angeles hit by the massive Station Fire, which took a month to contain after it began in late August, the Los Angeles Times said.
Much of California has been hit by a system combining an Alaskan storm and the remains of a typhoon from the Pacific. Forecasters predicted "moderate to heavy rain" and warned that once soil that has lost the root systems holding it on hillsides gets wet, debris flows and mudslides can begin even when no rain is falling.
"This heavy rainfall may create significant hazards in and around recent burn areas, with a threat of flash flooding and debris flows over the burn areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties," the NWS said.
U.S., Russia: No total agreement on Iran
MOSCOW, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart said Tuesday they agree diplomacy must be used with Iran, but disagree on sanctions.
The United States is interested in pursuing a diplomatic track to pressure Iran to come clean about its nuclear program, which Western leaders say is for developing nuclear weapons but Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.
"(We) are aware that we might not be as successful as we need to be," Clinton said in Moscow. "We have always looked at potential of sanctions if we are not successful" in getting an accurate accounting from Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says threats of sanctions would be detrimental in trying to induce Iran to behave responsibly.
"The threats of imposing sanctions ... would be counterproductive," he said through a translator.
Both diplomats said Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear energy, but "it is not entitled to nuclear weapons. Russia agrees with us on that," Clinton said.
Lavrov said Clinton did not pressure him to reach agreement on any new sanctions on Iran during Tuesday's talks, Voice of America said. He said the two countries want to resolve all issues related to Iran's nuclear program.
He said sanctions should be used when all other diplomatic means were spent, adding, "in the situation with Iran, this is far from the case," Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.
"We are not asking anything of each other on Iran, because it would be ridiculous to make requests on an issue where our positions coincide," he said.
However, Clinton said sanctions over North Korea's nuclear program would remain in place.
"We have absolutely no intention of relaxing or offering to relax North Korean sanctions at this point whatsoever," she said.
Bill would expand mortgage tax break
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Tuesday he would introduce language that would expand the $8,000 tax credit to all home buyers.
Isakson's office said the language will be offered as an amendment to legislation extending unemployment benefits, The Hill reported.
The new measure would keep the credit at $8,000, but would expand it to include all home buyers, not just first-time home purchases. It would also double the income limits on those eligible to win the credit to $150,000 for an individual and $300,000 for a couple.
The tax credit was part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress approved earlier this year and is to expire at the end of November.
