Democrats Mull Strategy For Remaining Appropriations Bills

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 04 Dec 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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House Democrats appear increasingly likely to "resort to a multibill omnibus package" to clear unresolved fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills and extend programs that expire at the end of the month, CQ Today reports (Clarke/Epstein, CQ Today, 12/2). Among the remaining bills are the FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3293), Financial Services (HR 3170) and State-Foreign Operations (HR 3081) appropriations bills, all three of which Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) previously had said could be combined in a small omnibus with the Department of Defense appropriations bill (Women's Health Policy Report, 11/17).

House leaders are carefully mulling their strategy to ensure that the bills can move with minimum delay through the Senate, which remains focused on the health reform debate, CQ Today reports. House Democratic aides say that one possibility "under serious consideration" is combining the unpassed bills into a single package with other items, such as a one-year Medicare physician payment fix, an increase in the debt limit, a short-term extension of the Patriot Act and possibly some economic stimulus measures. However, such a package likely would have a price tag of more than $1 trillion, making it a target for Republican attacks. Another possibility is dividing the remaining bills into two or more smaller packages.

According to CQ Today, combining several measures into a conference report on unrelated legislation could lead to delays in the Senate, since lawmakers can raise a point of order against items that were not part of either chamber's original bill. Democrats would need all 60 votes in their caucus to override such an objection (CQ Today, 12/2).

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