According to the Pew Research Center, the health care debate was the number one news story of the week, at least when it comes to media coverage (though, in what may be a sad testament to the state of the media, balloon boy was number three — edging out Afghanistan). And that’s reflected in today’s congressional roundup.

Rep. Martin Heinrich had some big news yesterday, announcing that the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA) will be included in the house version of a health care reform bill. Heinrich wrote a letter to house leadership a week ago urging the reauthorization

“Our country desperately needs health insurance reform—but our pursuit of reform cannot leave Native Americans behind,” said Rep. Heinrich in a statement.

“As we continue to debate health insurance reform, we must remember that true reform must include all Americans—this includes our nation’s Indian Country. I want to thank Congressman Heinrich for his work on behalf of Native Americans, and for his leadership to assure the reauthorization of ICHIA,” said U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cali., in the press release.

The amendment, written by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., would reauthorize IHCIA until 2025.

Heinrich wrote a letter (pdf) to House leadership urging the inclusion of Rahall’s amendment into the House version of health care reform, which Democrats hope to pass by the end of the year. You can read the embedded letter below.

Many media outlets reported Thursday afternoon that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is leaning towards including a public option in the Senate version of health care reform.

From the New York Times:

A clear majority of Senate Democrats favor a government-run plan, saying it would hold down costs by competing with private insurers. Champions of the public option, as it is known, have urged Mr. Reid to take an aggressive posture by putting it in the bill and forcing opponents to try to strip it out.

“Centrists” in both parties (notably Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Iowa, and Sen. Olympia Snowe, D-Maine) were cool to the idea.

Speaking of the public option, former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean got some Blue Dog and conservative Democrats in political hot water when his group Democracy for America claimed that they supported the public option — including Harry Teague, D-N.M.

The National Republican Congressional Campaign, the group tasked with winning and defending Republican seats in the House, pounced. But, as The Hill noted, Teague has actually voiced the opposite sentiment:

Teague told the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal last month that he does not believe a public option is necessary. His spokeswoman said Thursday that Dean’s organization had never contacted the congressman’s office about healthcare reform.

Moving away from health care, the liberal magazine Mother Jones highlights the Senatorial hold on President Barack Oabam’s nomination of Joseph Pizarchik to head the Office of Surface Mining.

Pizarchik is not popular because of some of his actions and policies enacted as director of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation.

Bingaman told Mother Jones about the situation:

I’m not dismissing or minimizing the serious concerns that were raised. I share many of those concerns. But I don’t agree that all of these problems can be laid at Mr. Pizarchik’s door… I do not think it fair to vilify him for the shortcomings in laws that have been passed by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly or the laws we passed here in Washington.

An interesting read.

Think there is too much money in politics? Well things could get worse after the Federal Elections Commission decided not to appeal an appeals court ruling “that could free outside groups to spend huge sums of cash unburdened by contribution limits.”

And everyone’s favorite former Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin, endorsed a candidate in a New York state special election. Palin endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman — over Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava — in the special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

There are worries among Republicans that the two will split votes and hand the victory of the seat. The seat was previously held by Republican John M. McHugh, who resigned earlier this year to become Obama’s United States Secretary of the Army.

Heinrich IHCIA Letter