House Rejects Spending And Budget
Proposals
July 2, 2004 - The House of Representatives June 24 turned
back two proposals with significant consequences for funding programs
important to medical schools and teaching hospitals. The House rejected
by a 184 to 230 vote a resolution offered by Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.)
to increase the FY 2005 discretionary spending cap by reducing tax
breaks for those individuals with incomes over $1 million. The measure
the House rejected was a resolution revising the FY 2005 budget
resolution (S.Con.Res.
95) as it applies in the House. The Obey amendment would have
provided the House Appropriations Committee with an additional $14.2
billion for FY 2005 appropriations. Mr. Obey, the ranking Democrat
on the House Appropriations Committee, proposed to use a portion
of the additional funds to increase the NIH budget and restore the
Administration's proposed cuts in Title VII health professions funding.
Shortly after midnight, House appropriators joined forces with
almost all Democrats in decisively defeating an effort to revise
the congressional budget process. The final vote on the "Spending
Control Act of 2004" (H.R.
4663), sponsored by House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle
(R-Iowa), was 146 to 268. The bill, championed by conservative Republicans
dissatisfied that the congressional budget resolution passed earlier
in the year does not go far enough to control federal spending,
would have reinstituted statutory caps on discretionary spending
for 2 years, and revived "pay-as-you-go" rules requiring
legislation to increase entitlement spending be offset by decreases
in other entitlement programs. The House spent little time debating
Chairman Nussle's bill, which was a revised version of the bill
(H.R.
3973) approved by the House Budget Committee in March. Most
of the attention focused on a wide-ranging series of amendments,
all of which were defeated or withdrawn.
In a June 3 letter
to all members of the House of Representatives, AAMC President Jordan
Cohen, M.D., expressed opposition to H.R. 3973, describing the cap
on discretionary spending and the limit on Congress' ability to
expand entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid "detrimental
to our nation's health care system." Despite the bill's defeat,
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said the debate would
set the stage for a more serious budget overhaul proposal in the
next Congress.
Information:
Dave Moore, Senior Director
AAMC Government Relations
dbmoore@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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