President signs bill providing more Medicaid funding to states – McKnight’s Long Term Care News.
Month: August 2010
House approves $26B bill to aid states – TheHill.com
– 08/10/10 04:13 PM ET
The House on Tuesday put the final stamp on $26 billion in emergency state aid, agreeing to Senate legislation on a 247-161 vote before bolting town.
The vote to help states facing critical budget shortfalls — with $16 billion in Medicaid funding and $10 billion to prevent teacher layoffs — capped an irregular day during a rare mid-recess session.
But the funding bill was overshadowed by several events, including news that former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) had been in a plane crash in his home state. It was later confirmed that Stevens died.
With the House back in session, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) also seized another chance to grab the spotlight, taking to the floor for more than 30 minutes to defend himself, condemn his critics and dare his colleagues to expel him.
Democrats showed far more unity on the state aid bill than they’ve shown on just about any other piece of legislation that was potentially politically risky.
All but three Democrats — Reps. Bobby Bright (Ala.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.) and Gene Taylor (Miss.) voted for the legislation that Republicans generally derided as another bailout. Two Republicans — Reps. Ahn “Joseph” Cao (La.) and Mike Castle (Del.) — voted for the legislation.
Before taking up the state aid bill, the House introduced and passed by voice vote a $600 million border-security bill mirroring legislation the Senate also passed last week. And House Democrats quickly dispensed with a privileged resolution from Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) that would have prevented Congress from holding a lame-duck session after the elections in the absence of a national emergency.
Democrats held together — with plenty of votes to spare — in killing Price’s bill on procedural ground.
Source:
House Democrats return from brief recess for unfinished business – TheHill.com
– 08/09/10 09:00 PM ET
House Democrats are set to approve $26 billion in emergency state aid, fight off a lame-duck lockout and pass a border-security bill before they wrap up their work period Tuesday and repack their bags for home.
The unusual August work session was prompted by the Senate’s surprise passage last week — after the House had recessed until mid-September — of a $26 billion package of teacher and Medicaid funding for states.
A second surprise out of the upper chamber — passage of a $600 million border-security measure by unanimous consent Thursday night — forced House leaders to add yet another item to the agenda.
While Democrats don’t expect many hurdles in passing the Medicaid and teacher-funding bill, they had to scramble Monday to head off a massive procedural problem with border security legislation.
The problem stemmed from the Senate passing its own revenue-raising bill rather than legislation that originated in the House.
Under the Constitution, bills that raise revenue must originate in the House. Democrats in the lower chamber spent much of the day weighing the cost of introducing a new bill that allayed Constitutional concerns but that risked putting the legislation on hold until September.
In the end, leadership decided to introduce new border-security legislation, House aides said Monday night. This will force the Senate to vote again on the legislation. Unless the Senate breaks up its recess, the legislation won’t go to President Obama until at least September, but Democrats decided that was better than risking a court challenge to the legislation.
As Democrats huddled to discuss their options, they were getting new reminders of the political stakes involved in the border-security issue.
On Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican running for reelection, greeted President Obama in Austin with a letter calling on the White House to send an additional 1,000 additional National Guard troops to secure the border with Mexico.
Perry said Obama should also send unmanned aerial drones to keep the border safe from drug traffickers.
The Senate bill would provide funding for an additional 1,000 border patrol agents and for hundreds of additional federal authorities, as well as facilitate the deployment of aerial drones.
If House Democrats opt to introduce a new bill, it will most likely resemble a $700 million border security measure that the chamber passed just prior to the beginning of the August break.
Numerous conservative Democrats were pushing for passage of such a bill, and even the most ardent supporters of broad immigration reform said action is needed.
A spokesman for Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), one of the most vocal critics of Arizona’s new immigration law, said he supports the border security measures that have passed both the House and Senate.
Still, some advocates for a broader immigration overhaul criticized the move as political pandering.
“We’re disappointed but not surprised that politicians are reaching for the border-security grab-bag right before the August recess,” said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America’s Voice, a group pushing for comprehensive immigration reform. “Unless you do the rest of reform, you’re not going to have a system that works.”
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, dismissed the Senate-passed bill as a “Band-Aid” advanced by Senate Democrats who were “succumbing to crass political considerations, rather than sound policymaking.”
Amid the confusion over the border-security measure, Democrats tried to highlight the GOP’s expected opposition to the $26 billion state aid bill.
“Taking a page out of the failed Bush playbook, congressional Republicans want to saddle future generations with nearly $700 billion in debt to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest few, while opposing a fully paid-for jobs bill that reduces the deficit and keeps teachers in the classroom and police officers on the beat,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Democrats will have to contend with a privileged resolution from Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, that would prevent Congress from holding any post-election “lame-duck” session except in the case of a national emergency.
“I am asking every member of the House to take a pledge not to trample on the will of their constituents in a lame-duck session,” Price said in a statement. “It is the very least that Americans should be able to expect from their representatives in Congress.”
Senior Democratic aides said on Monday that they expect to deal with all three bills by the end of the day Tuesday.
Source:
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/113421-house-dems-look-to-wrap-up-state-aid-border-security-bills
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/113421-house-dems-look-to-wrap-up-state-aid-border-security-bills
via House Democrats return from brief recess for unfinished business – TheHill.com.
House poised to vote today on enhanced Medicaid funding bill – McKnight’s Long Term Care News
AAHSA – Advocacy and Grassroots Activism: An Overview
| Medicaid Vote Coming in the House Support Extension of Increased Funding |
|
| August 9, 2010: On Aug. 5, the U.S. Senate passed legislation extending increased federal Medicaid funding for the states. We commend the Senate’s action on this six-month extension of FMAP funding to prevent cutbacks in state Medicaid programs.
After the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the extraordinary step of calling the U.S. House of Representatives back from its August recess to vote on the Medicaid funding bill early this week. This legislation must pass the House as well as the Senate if it is to become law. Please use the sample letter to urge your House member to support this measure when it comes to a vote. |
Healthcare Monday – The Hill’s Healthwatch
Healthcare Monday
– 08/09/10 08:00 AM ET
— A slow day Monday on Capitol Hill, where House lawmakers will be filtering in in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled vote on emergency Medicaid funding. The proposal, passed by the Senate last week, would provide cash-strapped states with $16.1 billion in Medicaid funds over the first half of next year.
The figure represents a 3.2 percent hike in Medicaid’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in the first quarter of 2011, and a 1.2 percent FMAP bump in the second quarter.
The $16.1 billion was less than Democrats wanted to lend (the initial proposal was $24 billion), but deficit spending concerns forced Senate leaders to scale back their proposal to attract the support of some GOP moderates.
The Senate left for its August vacation last week, and will return after Labor Day.
Long-term care community cheers passage of Medicaid extension legislation – McKnight’s Long Term Care News
Long-term care leaders on Thursday praised the Senate for approving an extension of enhanced Medicaid assistance to cash-strapped states.
“We applaud the Senate for taking action to pass this vital Medicaid relief, and urge the House to follow in the same manner,” said Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association. “Every day that passes without an extension of this funding, seniors’ care is placed in jeopardy, facility staffing stability is compromised, and good, local health jobs are put at risk.”
The Senate approved the funding in a 61-39 vote Thursday morning. The bill would provide states with 3.2% in additional federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) funds during the first three months of 2011, and an additional 1.2% for the following three months. Nursing homes receive most of their funding from Medicaid. The extra funding will help provide local caregiver job stability throughout America, Yarwood and Alan G. Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, noted.
Senate to vote on FMAP funding bill today – McKnight’s Long Term Care News
House to return next week to move $26 billion state aid package – TheHill.com
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the news via Twitter, saying: “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.”
The news means lawmakers will be interrupting their August recess to come back into session.
A House leadership aide told The Hill the early return was discussed following the Senate’s vote Wednesday to move forward on the $26 billion package.
Separately, a Democratic aide said if members return to Washington to vote on the package, it would be Monday or Tuesday next week.
A K Street source said $10 billion in aid to teachers, which is part of the package, drove the issue, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was pushing Pelosi to call the House back to Washington.
Pelosi seemed to acknowledge that in her tweet when she wrote the return was “to save teachers’ jobs.”
States would have to lay off thousands of teachers if the money isn’t approved by Congress until September. The House was scheduled to return the second week of next month.
It would be “very difficult for the House to be away from Washington for five weeks” while thousands of state employees face layoffs because of budget shortages, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Wednesday.
The package would set up a $10 billion Education Jobs Funds to spare teachers from layoffs. It would also disperse $16 billion in Medicaid funding to states struggling to balance their budgets.
It isn’t as urgent that Congress approve the Medicaid funding, because that portion of the package approves payments that would be dispersed beginning in January.
The Senate invoked cloture on the package Wednesday, setting up a final vote on passage.
“The House must pass this bill with no changes as soon as possible,” AFSCME legislative affairs specialist Linda Bennett wrote in a memo obtained by The Hill.
“There is talk that Speaker Pelosi could call back the House to vote on this matter before September. An August vote would alleviate teacher job losses before school starts in September,” Bennet wrote in the memo, which was circulating Wednesday on K Street.
“Please call offices of allies and those who had deficit concerns with the tax extender bill. We need support for this (soon-to-be) Senate passed bill to move quickly in the House,” Bennet wrote in the memo.
A senior Democratic aide said Reid’s and Pelosi’s staff were in discussions over whether the House needs to return to Washington to pass the legislation.
Otherwise, the package would have to wait until the week of Sept. 13, when House lawmakers were scheduled to return from the August recess. Both chambers must pass the legislation before President Obama can sign it into law and states can begin accepting the federal assistance.
A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score assumed the bill would not become law until mid-September.
Republicans might object to passing the legislation in August, which could affect its estimated cost.
Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), criticized the Democrats’ talks.
“The American people don’t want more ‘stimulus’ spending — particularly spending for labor unions attached to a job-killing tax increase. Democrats would be better off listening to their constituents, who are asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ rather than returning to Washington, D.C., to vote for more tax hikes and special-interest bailouts,” Steel said.
This story was updated at 2:09 p.m., 3:06 p.m., and 3:49 p.m.
— Michael O’Brien contributed to this story.
via House to return next week to move $26 billion state aid package – TheHill.com.
Senators plan to vote this week on bill extending Medicaid assistance to states – McKnight’s Long Term Care News
August 02 2010
The Senate is expected to vote this week on legislation that would provide $26.1 billion in education funding and Medicaid assistance to states.
Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid expects resistance from Republicans, according to The Hill newspaper. He will force them to vote on the package, the news outlet said. Republicans oppose increased spending on healthcare, but some governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), are in favor of the funding to close steep deficits.
Nursing home providers have been urging lawmakers for several months to extend by six months the increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) to states. The increased Medicaid assistance is set to expire at the end of the year.
Long Term Care Rehabilitation 