CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Continuing Resolution

Interview

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BLITZER: One of the leaders of the bipartisan effort to try to break the deadlock is Republican senator, Susan Collins, of Maine. She's joining us now live from Capitol Hill. Senator, thanks very much for coming in.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R) MAINE: My pleasure, Wolf. BLITZER: This decision to postpone the meeting that the president had scheduled for 3:00 p.m. eastern today with the House and Senate Republican and Democratic leadership, is that good news or bad news?

COLLINS: I think it's probably good news, because I believe that that postponement as well as the postponement until tomorrow morning of a meeting of the Senate Republican caucus means that the details are being worked out on the compromise and anything that brings us closer to a vote is a positive development.

BLITZER: Say it does pass, some of the ideas that you and your colleagues have worked behind the scenes to come up together. Let's say it passes and passes impressively in the Senate, 70 or even 80 votes. Are you confident that the speaker of the House would allow that piece of legislation to come up for a yea or nay vote without any modifications?

COLLINS: Well, I've never served in the House, so I don't dare make a prediction, but my hope is that it would have enough momentum that Speaker Boehner would bring it to the Senate floor. After all, the House's attempts have not been successful so far in re-opening government and averting default. So, I hope that they'll take a serious look at the Senate bill.

I hope they'll just pass it so that we can quickly reopen government, avert the default, and restore the confidence of the American people.

BLITZER: All right. Let's talk about the latest ideas that may be on the table right now, close to a deal. How long would the government stay operational, fully operational without any government shutdown? This current deal that you could vote on, let's say as early as tomorrow.

COLLINS: Well, that's one of the key issues that has been under discussion. The bipartisan group of 12 senators, six Republicans, six Democrats, that met in my office this morning did arrive on a date and we agreed not to disclose the specifics of that, but suffice it to say that it was shorter than the original six months that I had proposed.

The hope would be that during that time, the Budget Committee Conference could meet and come up with a plan that would guide the overall spending for the year. We would, however, not be breaking the budget cuts -- the budget caps, rather, that were included in the Budget Control Act.

BLITZER: The forced budget cuts known as sequestration. Dana Bash reported earlier and I'll tell you what she reported in case you missed it. You can tell us if we're correct or not correct, close, not close. January 15th, the government would be funded, December 13th, the House Senate budget conferees would come up, hopefully, with some sort of deal, and that the debt ceiling would be raised until February 15th. Are those accurate?

COLLINS: Well, those numbers and dates are very close to what we have recommended in our bipartisan group. I think I'll just leave it at that, because it is up to the discretion of the two leaders at this point in the negotiations.

BLITZER: The medical devices tax, I know you and your colleagues were ready to go ahead and link that to this deal as well. A lot of officials say the White House believes that's a nonstarter even though there are plenty of Democrats and Republicans who support getting rid of that medical device tax, at least, delaying it for a couple years. Could this deal go through without any direct connection, direct connection to that medical device tax?

COLLINS: I'm baffled by the White House's opposition to a two-year delay in the tax, which is what our compromise group had suggested, because it does have widespread bipartisan support. When we had a vote during the budget resolution on this issue on repeal of the tax, it garnered 79 votes.

So, that's a lot of democrats who view this $30 billion tax over ten years as being counterproductive and as being passed on to the health care consumers as well as having an impact, a negative impact, on domestic employment. What we had proposed was replacing the revenues from that tax from a different source.

So, it really would have no impact on the financing of Obamacare, and that's why I'm surprised that the White House has continued to push back on either repeal or at least a two-year delay of the tax.

BLITZER: Yes. I don't think they want any direct connection because the president said he wasn't going to negotiate Obamacare under this kind of threat, if you will. But maybe you can finesse it, come up with some sort of indirect connection and maybe that will get going. Just a thought. Senator Collins, thanks for all your good work.

COLLINS: Thank you.

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