February 12, 2010

The Honorable Harry Reid

Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Leader and Madam Speaker:

As you know, we welcomed the President’s call for bipartisan health care talks. The
American people have made it clear that they strongly oppose the comprehensive health
care bills you have passed and want them shelved in favor of a step-by-step approach
focused on lowering costs for families and small businesses.

Given the President’s statement that he is “open to any ideas” at the proposed summit, it
is our responsibility as congressional leaders to see that the views of our Members and
our constituents will be heard in good faith. The existence of any kind of backroom
health care deal among the White House and Democratic Leaders would certainly make a
mockery of the President’s stated desire to have a “bipartisan” and “transparent” dialogue
on this issue.

To that end, we were taken aback by a report in the Tuesday, February 9 edition of
Politico stating that President Obama “hopes to walk into the Feb. 25 summit with an
agreement in hand between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid on a final Democratic bill, so they can move ahead with a reform package
after the sit-down.”

We were further taken aback by a report in CongressDaily later the same day in which an
aide to the Speaker, appearing at the National Health Policy Conference, described the
legislative “trick” Democratic Leadership intends to use to jam through a “pre-
negotiated” health care bill. It has also been reported that other congressional aides
present concurred with this assessment.

Additionally, the Christian Science Monitor reported today that special interest groups
are calling for Democrats to finalize a deal in advance of the proposed summit.

To ensure we can move forward in good faith, we ask that you publicly disavow these
reports and assure the American people that Democratic Leadership is not putting
together any kind of backroom health care deal or plotting any kind of legislative trickery
to pass it. Your response will help clarify whether Democratic Leadership is serious
about genuine bipartisan negotiations and whether the proposed summit will be a truly
open forum or merely an intramural exercise.

We appreciate your immediate response in this matter and look forward to further efforts
to foster bipartisan cooperation.

Sincerely,

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN)