Budget Conferees Meet To
Resolve House and Senate Differences
April 4, 2003- Congressman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) and
Senator Don Nickles (R-Okla.), chairmen of the House and Senate
Budget Committees, respectively, April 2 formally opened the
conference negotiations on the FY 2004 Budget. In addition
to resolving the size of the tax cut, two other outstanding
issues are the overall limit on discretionary spending, which
affects spending on NIH, health professions, AHRQ, CDC, and
veterans' health care, and the $93 billion in Medicaid cuts,
as proposed by the House-passed budget bill.
Conferees had hoped to complete their conference by week's
end; however, moderate Republican Senators' opposition to
a tax cut larger than the Senate-passed level of $350 billion
appears to be delaying the conference.
The AAMC remains concerned with the overall limit on discretionary
spending and the potential Medicaid cuts. AAMC President Jordan
Cohen, M.D., April 1 wrote a letter
to the House and Senate conferees urging the inclusion in
the final budget bill the Senate-passed level of $791 billion
for discretionary spending in FY 2004. "Equally important,
we also urge you to reject any Medicaid cuts and adopt the
Senate's budget provisions as it related to Medicaid spending.
Also on April 1, the House passed 399-22 a non-binding motion
to instruct conferees to require the managers to eliminate
the House-passed bill's reconciliation instructions to a number
of committees, including the Energy and Commerce and Ways
and Means Committees. The motion also instructs the conferees
to "adjust the revenue levels without resulting in any
increase in the deficit or reduction in surplus for any fiscal
year covered by the resolution.
On April 2, the National Governors Association Executive
Committee Chair Paul Patton (D-Ky.) and Vice Chair Dick Kempthorne
(R-Idaho) wrote to express support for the Senate position
in regard to mandatory spending levels. The letter
states "The House budget resolution would have a severe
impact on states' ability to adequately fund many federally-funded,
state-administered programs for the most vulnerable populations,
such as Medicaid, TANF, food stamps, and SCHIP." Govs.
Patton and Kempthorne also co-chair the Medicaid Reform Task
Force (see related article).
Information:
Dave Moore, Senior Associate Vice President
AAMC Government Relations
dbmoore@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
Lynne Davis Boyle, Assistant Vice President
AAMC Office of Governmental Relations
ldavisboyle@aamc.org
(202) 828-0526
Get Washington Highlights
in your Inbox!
| 
