by Congressional Quarterly

House Democratic leaders are still struggling to produce a final health care overhaul bill at an acceptable official cost estimate, but Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday they continue to plan a final vote this week. House leaders were to huddle late Tuesday afternoon, following a noon session of the full Democratic Caucus. There were reports they are having trouble drafting a bill that meets their budgetary targets. Click here to learn more! Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters the leadership hopes to nail down final language of a package of amendments to the Senate-passed health care bill sometime Tuesday. He said the Congressional Budget Office was still working on its estimate of the costs of the changes, which would be advanced under budget reconciliation rules. That would allow the “corrections” package to pass the Senate by a simple majority vote rather than the 60 normally needed to surmount a filibuster. “The expectation is we will do health care reform later in the week,” Hoyer said. But he wouldn’t say if Democrats have the 216 votes they will need to pass the health care package. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller , D-Calif., was asked by reporters about reports that preliminary CBO scores showed that the reconciliation bill does not save $2 billion over five years as required under budget rules, and that the costs of the total bill topped $1 trillion. “I don’t know that yet,” he replied. “We’re waiting to hear back from CBO. When I left the meeting last night, we were sending it back to CBO.” Rep. Robert E. Andrews , D-N.J., who has been asked by House leaders to help promote the bill, also declined to talk about whether initial CBO estimates may have revealed problems. “They were preliminary scores. By the nature of the fact that it’s a draft, I don’t want to comment on it,” said Andrews.

House Faces Pivotal Votes on Health Care

March 15, 2010

   by Congressional Quarterly

Democrats are entering a critical week in the health care debate, as party leaders close in on the 216-vote threshold they need for the House to clear a Senate-passed overhaul bill. But they still are trying to resolve at least two important issues: making Medicaid funding equitable to all states and addressing Hispanic lawmakers’ concerns about immigration. A third issue, abortion, has been set aside, Democrats say. Click to learn more! Despite holdouts in different quarters of her caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi sounded confident on March 12 that she would have the votes to finish the health care overhaul. “We stand ready to stay as long as it takes to pass the bill,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. “I think members are eager to pass the bill. . . . It won’t be long before we’ll be making a real difference in the lives of the American people.” Democrats will use an elaborate series of parliamentary procedures to try to accomplish the task. House Democratic leaders are preparing to clear the Senate-passed bill by the end of the week or soon thereafter. It will be considered with a companion bill, to be sent to the Senate, that would amend the Senate measure with changes demanded by House Democrats. The companion bill will probably be combined with a student loan proposal that some Democrats believe could attract additional votes in the House. The proposal would make the federal government the sole originator of the student loans, which Democrats contend is less costly to taxpayers than subsidizing banks to loan money to students. The House passed such legislation last year, but proponents say it would be easier to pass the bill in the Senate using expedited reconciliation rules to avoid a Republican filibuster. The House Budget Committee is scheduled to start the process Monday by marking up a reconciliation bill containing proposals previously submitted by three panels with jurisdiction over health care issues — Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor. The bill will also contain the student loan measure. Later in the week, the House Rules Committee is expected to replace the health care language in the reconciliation bill with the bill the House wants to use to amend the Senate-passed health care bill. The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet March 17.

Pelosi Sets Up Health Care Vote Next Week

March 12, 2010

   by Congressional Quarterly

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has outlined provisions of a health care “corrections” bill that she hopes the House will pass next week, setting the stage for final congressional action on Democrats’ health care overhaul. Pelosi said Friday that the measure — drafted to make changes to the Senate-passed health care bill — will do away with controversial provisions such as the “Cornhusker kickback,” which would have given only Nebraska financial relief on Medicaid costs. Click here to learn more! It also will speed up the closing of a gap in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, she said. Medicare stops contributing to the cost of seniors’ medicines after they have spent $2,830 a year, and does not resume cost-sharing until expenditures hit $4,550. The corrections bill would limit the so-called tax on “Cadillac health care plans” in ways Pelosi did not specify and instead raise another tax she did not identify. Labor unions, a key Democratic constituency, had bitterly opposed the new tax on health care policies since their members tend to have the most generous employer-paid insurance coverage. The changes to the Senate bill largely follow the outline issued by President Obama on Feb. 22 as he encouraged Congress to finish work on the stalled health care overhaul. On Friday, the White House increased pressure on Congress to act quickly by announcing that Obama will delay his scheduled departure for a trip to Indonesia and Australia from March 18 to March 21. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md., told members on Friday to be prepared for votes next weekend. To finish its work on health care legislation, the House must pass the Senate bill as well as the new measure, which is intended to address concerns of various blocs of House members. House Democrats plan to take the package to the Budget Committee on Monday, a step required under House procedures. The Rules Committee could receive the bill as early as March 17, which would clear the way for a House vote as early as March 18.

House Republicans Embrace One-Year Moratorium on Earmarks

March 11, 2010

   by Congressional Quarterly

House Republicans voted among themselves Thursday to forgo earmark requests for a year — a move designed to trump a more limited curb on member-directed spending adopted by Democrats a day ago. The Republican Conference’s support of a one-year moratorium on GOP earmark requests goes beyond the ban House Democrats imposed on earmarks directed to for-profit entities in fiscal 2011 spending bills. Click here to learn more! Republican leaders said the ban — which the conference approved by voice vote — would apply not only to appropriations bills but also to authorizing and tax measures. But none of those moves is likely to end or even alter the earmarking process in a major way, because Senate Democratic and Republican appropriators do not want to curb the practice. “Today House Republicans took an important step toward showing the American people we’re serious about reform by adopting an immediate, unilateral ban on all earmarks,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, said in a statement. “But the more difficult battle lies ahead, and that’s stopping the spending spree in Washington that is saddling our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt.” Appropriations Committee member Jack Kingston , R-Ga., said the moratorium was approved only after considerable debate and the defeat of a handful of amendments. “It shows our party is united and trying to get a grip on runaway spending,” Kingston said. “As long as this issue has been out there we haven’t been able to get to the core issues like entitlement reform. The idea was to take earmarks off the table,” he added. Kingston said, however, that some members did oppose the resolution during the GOP Conference’s voice vote on the matter. He said the defeated amendments included one to make the one-year moratorium permanent, another saying members couldn’t take contributions from anyone connected with an earmark, and a third calling for a report back to the full GOP Conference before the November election about permanent changes to the earmark system that should be recommended by Republicans. “We wanted to have a little more flexibility,” Kingston said about voting down the amendments.

Both Parties Pursue New Earmark Limits

March 10, 2010

   by Congressional Quarterly

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said Wednesday that GOP members will consider imposing a unilateral moratorium on earmark requests this year, in a bid to trump newly announced Democratic limits on member-directed spending. Boehner, R-Ohio, a longtime critic of congressional earmarks, set a Thursday caucus meeting on the topic as House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey , D-Wis., announced that his panel will not approve fiscal 2011 earmarks directed to for-profit entities. The annual Defense spending bill contains the largest number of earmarks for private companies, and new Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks , D-Wash., joined Obey in the announcement. Obey and Dicks said that if the new limit had been in effect last year, “it would have resulted in 1,000 fewer earmarks.” Obey and Dicks also announced that agency inspector generals will be required to audit 5 percent of all earmark to “ensure that earmarks go to their intended purposes and to prevent for-profits from masquerading as non-profits.” In addition, the committee announced it will create a single “online ‘one-stop’ link to all House members’ appropriations earmark requests to enable the public to easily view them.” Previously members were required to post the requests on their own Web sites. In the current fiscal year, earmarks totaled just under $16 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. While that is a tiny percentage of more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2010 discretionary spending, they have become a lightning rod for critics of federal spending and ethical problems in Congress. While a number of Republicans like Boehner have fought against earmarks for years, many Republican members actively pursue them. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, it was a Republican — Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida, a senior House appropriator and ranking Republican on the Defense Subcommittee — who received the most solo earmarks in fiscal 2010. His tally was 41 earmarks totaling $90.5 million.