Democrats Say Bush ‘Failing to Deliver’ on Patients’ Rights

With negotiations on patients' rights legislation making "no progress," Democrats have begun to "grumble" that the Bush administration -- "for all its promises to work with them on a bill just about everyone says they want" -- is "failing to deliver," CongressDaily reports. A "visibly annoyed" Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said, "I need to see if this administration is interested in negotiating on anything. Bipartisanship is a two-way street." Breaux and Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) have crafted a "middle-ground version" of a patients' rights bill that would allow "fewer" new lawsuits than the bipartisan proposal sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.). While Bush administration officials have said "privately for months" that they hope to pass patients' rights legislation early this year "so that it will not interfere" with Bush's "other domestic priorities," CongressDaily reports that they have "kept Breaux waiting" and have not met, "as promised," with backers of the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill. "They haven't reached out to us, haven't scheduled any meetings," an aide to Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), lead sponsor of the House version of the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards legislation, said, adding, "We're very interested in participating." In addition, Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.), who "at the White House's request" did not "sign on" to Dingell's bill "even though he helped draft it," has reportedly become "impatient with the slow pace." McCain-Kennedy-Edwards backers also have warned that "if no agreement is reached by May," they will likely move to force a vote on their measure as an amendment to a larger bill before the Memorial Day recess. Last week, Frist said that he hoped "ongoing bipartisan negotiations on an education bill could help lead to an agreement" on a patients' rights bill (Rovner, CongressDaily, 4/6).