Thursday, January 08, 2009 Capitol
Hill Watch
House Democrats Plan To Vote on Stand-Alone SCHIP
Reauthorization Bill
The House next week plans to vote on
SCHIP expansion legislation similar to a bill that President Bush vetoed
in 2007, Dow Jones reports (Boles, Dow Jones,
1/7). According to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House
will consider the legislation as a stand-alone bill, rather than as part
of an economic stimulus package (Edney, CongressDaily, 1/7).
The House likely will vote on the legislation on Tuesday or Wednesday, House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said (Litvan/Marcus,
Bloomberg, 1/7). He added, "We want to get this to the
president as quickly as possible; therefore, we're going to rely on the
bill pretty much as it passed" in 2007 (Armstrong, CQ Today,
1/7).
The legislation will include an increase in the federal
cigarette tax to fund the SCHIP expansion, although the cost of the bill
remains undetermined. The 2007 bill, which supporters believe would have
increased SCHIP enrollment from six million to 10 million, would have
raised the tax by 61 cents per pack (Freking, AP/Miami Herald, 1/7). The 2007 bill would
have cost an estimated $35 million over five years (Rubenstein, "Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 1/7).
House Democratic leaders hope to expand SCHIP enrollment to 11 million
under the new legislation, according to Nadeam Elshami, a spokesperson for
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The length of time for which the
legislation would expand SCHIP also remains undetermined
(CongressDaily, 1/7).
In a letter to Hoyer, Pelosi and
Waxman, House Energy and Commerce Committee Vice Chair Diana DeGette
(D-Colo.) wrote that the legislation should not include concessions
included in the 2007 bill to attract support from Republicans because the
"current political situation is quite different than it was during the
110th Congress" (CQ Today, 1/7). DeGette said, "I want to
stress the importance of looking at the program in a new light now that we
no longer have the threat of a presidential veto" (Bloomberg,
1/7).
Prospects
Hoyer said that Congress likely will pass the
SCHIP expansion legislation despite Republican opposition, and that he
expects President-elect Barack Obama to sign the bill into law after he
takes office (CongressDaily, 1/7). The legislation "will
become law in the fairly near term," Hoyer said (Bloomberg,
1/7).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that the
Senate also will consider SCHIP expansion legislation as a stand-alone
bill after the chamber holds votes on land use and pay equity legislation
(CongressDaily, 1/7).
Priorities for Senate Democrats
Senate Democrats this week
outlined their priorities for the 111th Congress in 10 shell bills that
include several health care proposals. The stimulus package, which likely
will include additional federal funds for state Medicaid programs,
received the "symbolically important designation of S 1," and health care
reform legislation received the designation of S 4, CQ Today
reports.
In addition, Senate Democrats seek to repeal several
rules issued by the Bush administration, such as additional restrictions
under the Family and Medical Leave Act and a regulation related to
Medicaid outpatient services (Jansen, CQ Today, 1/7).