CONGRESSIONAL DIVISION ON SCHIP
In response to President Bush's veto threat on an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), leadership on both sides of the isle will permit a bipartisan debate.
Created in 1997, SCHIP was intended to insure children whose families are low-income but not qualify for Medicaid. Over the past 10 years the government has spent nearly $40 billion on the program.
Currently the House bill would expand SCHIP by nearly $50 billion over the next five years to $75 billion. It would also make changes to Medicare and Medicaid bringing more than 5 million children into SCHIP and Medicaid. The House bill would partially pay for the expansion by raising tobacco taxes by 45 cents, bringing the tax to 84 cents per pack. In order to pay for the expansion, the House would cut the Medicare Advantage program where insurers provide benefits to seniors in place of the government.
The Senate bill would expand SCHIP by $35 billion over the next five years, yet unlike the House bill, doesn't include any changes to Medicare and Medicaid. The bill would gradually exclude adults out of the program and would cap eligibility for children at three times the poverty level (limits that do not appear in the House bill). Rather than cutting Medicare Advantage, the Senate bill relies on a much larger tax increase at 61 cents increasing the cigarette tax to $1 per pack.
The House bill is set for debate on August 2, while in the Senate, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is expected to propose an amendment that would increase the SCHIP expansion to $50 billion over five years. This move may force Democrats in the Senate to vote against the Kerry amendment, despite agreement, to maintain Republican support to break filibusters from the debate against the bill.
YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT DRILLING
Last Thursday, July 26, six days after the state engineer ordered the Department of Energy to stop using water for drilling, an 8,000 gallon tanker drilled through Midway Valley distributing water to numerous drill rigs. The federal scientists are ignoring the court-approved order because Justice Department attorneys state that it is essential to continue drilling until November to show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the valley at the foot of Yucca Mountain is safe from floods and earthquakes.
Nevada officials in Washington, D.C. say that the work should have concluded years ago considering it is not in Nevada's best interest to let the Department of Energy complete the drilling project by November. Without the data currently being collected through the drilling, DOE officials will not be able to complete a license application for regulators to review, thus delaying the application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, due in June of 2008.
CONTINUING DEBATE ON FARM BILL
On Friday, July 27, the House concluded debate on the 2007 Farm Bill (HR 2419), ultimately adopting the measure by a vote of 231-191.
A number of Members took issue with the offset identified to pay for $4 billion in planned increases for food stamps, the tax payment of foreign owned companies. The issue divided members of Congress, some of whom saw the offset as closing a tax loophole while others viewed it as a tax increase that would cost American jobs.
The farm bill contains $6 billion in offsets taken from the January-passed bill to pay for the bill’s energy title, which will also be a part of the House energy bill.
