The Education & Labor committee will begin markup of the health care bill tomorrow at 3pm at 2175 Rayburn. We’re going to get there early in the morning and compete for seats with the homeless, who are holding places in line for lobbyists who pay them (see video).

We’ve asked the committee to reserve a front row seat for Hilda Sarkisyan, Nataline’s mother, who is flying in from California expressly for the purpose of sitting in the front row with her daughter’s picture. We’ve also asked the Speaker’s office for help. Patrick Kennedy told Mike Stark that his office would try to help, but when we called the staffer we got transferred several times and haven’t heard back. They said they thought it was "unrealistic" because the Congressman wasn’t on the committee.

According to the video above, lobbyists pay $3500 apiece for those seats. To companies that hire the homeless. Anyone who thinks it’s not important for supporters of affordable healthcare to be there should consider how very important it is to those trying to kill it.

I’ll be there, along with nyceve and Hilda Sarkisyan. If you’re in the DC area we hope you’ll join us.

If you can’t be there, you can help by contributing to the fund we set up to pay for expenses like bringing Hilda to DC.