Don’t bet big bucks on seeing it in a final health care bill, but Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley has won a temporary victory in his bid to make Congress live by the same deal it orders up for everyone else.

The veteran Iowa senator, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, announced today that he won adoption Tuesday night of an amendment to an emerging health care overhaul that would require members of Congress to obtain their own coverage from health care plans established in bill for currently uninsured Americans and small businesses.

“The more that Congress experiences the laws we pass, the better the laws are likely to be,” Grassley said. His amendment was adopted by voice vote.

Currently, members of Congress and their staffs participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which offers a wide array of insurance choices.

The pending legislation would set up an “exchange,” or insurance marketplace, modeled after the federal employees’ program. It would allow individuals who don’t receive insurance from their employers to purchase policies at group rates.

“My interest in having members of Congress participate in the exchange is consistent with my long-held view that Congress should live under the same laws it passes for the rest of the country,” Grassley said.

He noted that he had fought for the Congressional Accountability Act, which President Bill Clinton signed in 1995. That law for the first time extended protections of federal civil rights, labor and workplace safety laws to congressional office staff and other employees of the legislative branch.