Obama Signs Omnibus Spending Bill, Vows To Push Earmark Reform

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 13 Mar 2009 - 2:00 PDT


President Obama on Wednesday signed into law a $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill (HR 1105) to fund most government agencies through September, the Washington Post reports (Kane/Wilson, Washington Post, 3/12). The House approved the measure last month, and the Senate approved the bill on Tuesday. The bill includes the fiscal year 2009 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill and the eight other unapproved FY 2009 appropriations bills. The omnibus appropriations bill will fund departments and agencies from March 7 through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Since October 2008, the federal government has operated under a continuing resolution that funded most Cabinet departments and federal agencies at FY 2008 levels until March 6. Because the omnibus was not approved by the March 6 deadline, Congress and Obama were forced to approve another continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/11).

Obama called the omnibus measure, which includes more than $7.7 billion in more than 8,500 earmarks, "imperfect" (Washington Post, 3/12). However, he said it needed to be signed into law to keep the government running (Jackson/Fritze, USA Today, 3/12).

Democrats Meet With Obama on FY 2010 Budget Proposal
In related news, Democratic members of the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday held separate meetings with Obama and Vice President Biden at the White House to discuss the president's FY 2010 budget proposal. During the meeting, Senate Budget Committee Democrats told Obama that although they support his budget priorities, including health care reform, they intend to make changes to his proposal. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, "The president made it clear he understands Americans are hurting right now," adding that Obama is focused on cutting health care cost because he understands "medical costs are gobbling up everything in sight." Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) called for "bold changes in the extraordinarily wasteful health care system" (Krawzak, CQ Today, 3/11).

After the meeting, Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said that in its current form, the Senate would not approve Obama's budget (AP/Kansas City Star, 3/11). He added that Obama "fully anticipates that changes will be made to accommodate the interests of our colleagues" (Krawzak, CQ Today, 3/11). According to Conrad, measures to overhaul health care will be included in Congress' budget (Alarkon, The Hill, 3/11). House Budget Committee member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) characterized the meeting as "very constructive" though focused more on general goals than the details of legislation (Krawzak, CQ Today, 3/11).

Republicans Launch Opposition to FY 2010 Budget Proposal
In related news, congressional Republican leaders on Wednesday launched a month-long campaign that they hope will help mobilize opposition to Obama's budget proposal, CQ Today reports (Epstein, CQ Today, 3/11). According to Roll Call, the "multifront public relations assault" is "aimed at annihilating any attempts by the president to make inroads with Blue Dogs and other fiscally conservative Democrats who are nervous about continuing to vote for high-priced spending bills" (Kucinich, Roll Call, 3/12).

House Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence (Ind.) said, "Republicans in the House and Senate, with some degree of cooperation and collaboration, are going to challenge the assumptions and content in President Obama's budget and offer alternatives." Pence said House Republicans, led by House Budget Committee ranking member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), plan to offer a complete alternative budget proposal, while Republican Conference Chair Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) said Senate Republicans will "offer specific alternatives to individual items" in Obama's plan. Pence said the Republican message would be that Obama's proposal "spends too much, taxes too much, borrows too much. Republicans have a better plan" (Epstein, CQ Today, 3/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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