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The House returned Tuesday for another short week. Most of Washington is still waiting for the Senate Finance Committee to finish up their health care bill. The Committee wrapped up amendment debate last week and is currently awaiting the cost of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before voting on the full bill (the original bill cost nearly $900 billion). Rumor has it that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning for the full Senate to begin debate on the bill the week of October 19th. Expect the bill to be debated on the floor for 2-3 weeks.
The House isn’t quite as clear, but we expect their bill will be voted on later this month. Expect the house bill to be debated for a day, maybe two. Apparently that is plenty of time to debate the future of Health Care in America…As far as the overall debate; Democrats are still torn as to whether or not to include a government-run health care option in the bill. Despite overwhelming public opposition to such a plan, Congressional Democrats are still considering it. Republicans are out with a new document highlighting their position on Health Care reform. You can see it and some frequently asked questions here and a couple of articles on health care below in Articles of Interest.
Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy lost 263,000 jobs in September, raising the nationwide unemployment rate to 9.8 percent (a 16-year high). Democrats continue to tout the success of their “Stimulus,” but at this point results are hard to see. Republicans continue to promote pro-growth measures that will spur real, lasting growth for our economy and get the federal deficit under control. More information and Republican reaction to the jobs numbers here.
Yesterday, President Obama held a bipartisan, bicameral summit with key Congressional Leaders at the White House about the continuing problems in Afghanistan. Republican Whip Eric Cantor called the meeting “solemn and frank.” Republicans continue to seek and follow the advice of our Commanders in the field and hope that the politics of such liberal groups as MoveOn.org and Daily Kos will not influence the President’s decisions. Much more on Afghanistan here and please see a Washington Post Editorial below in Articles of Interest.
That’s it for now. As always, please let me know if you would like me to add anyone to this distribution.
Jeff
Legislation to be Voted on:
1. Conference Report on H.R. 2997 - Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 – This bill appropriates $23.3 billion in discretionary spending, which is 14 percent above last year. Last week, the House passed a Republican Motion to Instruct Conferees to make the text of the agreed upon bill available in a searchable, electronic format for at least 72 hours prior to its consideration.
2. Conference Report on H.R. 2647 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 – The House will likely vote on this Department of Defense Authorization on Thursday. These funds will go towards funding our troops, along with military construction in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are some concerns about the cuts in missile defense spending and the watered down language on Gitmo detainees. In addition, many GOP members have expressed concern over the controversial Hate Crimes language inserted into the Senate version of the bill that will be included in the Conference Report.
Items of Interest:
1. Fall Schedule – we won’t know for certain until it is announced by the Majority Leader, but at this point we expect the House to be in session the weeks of Nov. 2 and 16th with a potential District Work Period the week of November 9th. Remember, this is not final, just rumors.
2. Dem Ethics – Ethics issues continue to dog Washington, DC Democrats. Last week, Rep. John Carter (R-TX) announced his intention to offer a Privileged Resolution sometime this week to force a vote to remove Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) as Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, pending completion of the Ethics Committee investigation that is now in its second year. More on this can be found here.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Carter offered the resolution (H.Res 805) and the House voted 246-153 to refer the Motion to the Ethics Committee.
3. Washington Waste Watch – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) received $8.2 billion in stimulus funds. Recent reports suggest that the NIH is using a substantial portion of this money for questionable studies in foreign countries. Specifically, the NIH is conducting a $65,472 study on the relationship between HIV and sex in St. Petersburg, Russia; a $700,000 study on how taxes, trade and politics affect tobacco sales in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and other nations in Southeast Asia; and a $73,000 study on whether the Asian tradition of dragon boat racing will enhance the lives of cancer survivors. For more on this week’s wasteful spending item see here.
4. Afghanistan Polling – Alex Bratty with Public Opinion Strategies is out with another blog about the coming debate over whether to increase troop levels in Afghanistan. Read the blog post here.
5. Governors and Unfunded Mandates - Several GOP Governors have expressed concern of over the huge burden that the current health care proposals would put on their state budgets. Overwhelmingly governors oppose expanding Medicaid as an option to increase healthcare accessibility. The massive unfunded mandate which would result from such an increase, will force states to either raise taxes or make further cuts to state budgets. To see a recent letter distributed by the Republican Governors Association (RGA), please see here.
Articles of the Week:
1. If We Lose Afghanistan: Yes, al-Qaeda would return. But that's just the beginning - The Washington Post Editorial – 10-6-09 – At the heart of the Obama administration's deliberations about Afghanistan is the question of whether U.S. security rests on the defeat of the Afghan Taliban movement. The discussion often gets narrowed to the point of whether al-Qaeda, which is based in Pakistan, would gain a new haven in Afghanistan if the Taliban returned to power, so we'll start there. We won't, however, linger long, because for almost all military and civilian experts on the region the question is a no-brainer. See the rest of the article here.
2. House Majority Leader, GOP Whip To Meet on Health Care Overhaul – CQ - Edward Epstein – 10-1-09 - An unusual health care summit involving House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer and Republican Whip Eric Cantor appeared in the works Thursday when the two men announced on the House floor that they have agreed to meet next week. Read the rest of the article here.
3. New focus as Democrats sense that healthcare clock may be ticking fast – The Hill - By Alexander Bolton and Sam Youngman – 9-30-09 - Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are gripped with a renewed sense of urgency in their effort to pass healthcare reform. As the Finance Committee continued into the second week of marking up its bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) surprised colleagues on Wednesday by canceling a weeklong Columbus Day recess. Read the entire article here.
Jeff J. Burton
Office of the Republican Whip
Rep. Eric Cantor
202-225-0197
www.republicanwhip.house.gov
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