Washington — Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, has become a central figure in the health care reform debate as Democrats try to overcome a final hurdle in enacting sweeping legislation.

Slaughter, the House Rules Committee chair whose district includes the Town of Tonawanda, has proposed taking advantage of a parliamentary tactic that would fast-track House approval of the Senate’s version of health care reform legislation and send it to the president without a direct vote.

Republicans are bashing the tactic as the “Slaughter solution.”

Under Slaughter’s proposal, the Senate bill would be “deemed passed” if the House approves a rule for floor debate of a second bill. That second bill would contain changes that House Democrats want to make to the Senate bill. The House would debate the changes and vote on that bill.

The changes would be in the form of the annual budget resolution that the House and Senate each pass as a blueprint for spending in the next fiscal year. Lawmakers could use a procedure called reconciliation — reserved for spending-related legislation — to allow Senate Democrats to avoid having to get 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster. Instead, the bill would need only 51 votes.

Rep. David Dreier of California, the ranking Republican on the Rules Committee, said in an interview that Slaughter’s proposal aims to avoid floor debate on the Senate bill.

“The only debate would be the customary 30 minutes per side on the rule itself,” Dreier said. “If you approve the rule, you’d be basically approving the Senate health bill.”

Slaughter responded Monday that the procedure has been used by the House going back as far as a March 16, 1933, vote on maintaining the creditworthiness of the federal government. It was also used on a March 1948 vote to reduce income tax payments.

“Republicans have used it; Democrats have used this for major legislation,” she said. “What bothers me most is that they know it.”

Dreier, who chaired the Rules Committee when Republicans controlled the House, sometimes used the same tactic to pass legislation.

Dreier noted that when Democrats took control of the House in 2007, they promised to set a higher standard.

“We were all promised a whole new day of greater disclosure and accountability and transparency,” Dreier said. “They still say that. But everything they are doing is to avoid that.”

Slaughter had a different take on the situation. “I think somebody needs to have a solution and I’m happy to be the person with it,” she said.