GOP's new short-term budget fix does not include health cuts

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Mar 14 2011

Politico: GOP Offer: 3 Weeks, $6B In Cuts
Buying more time for budget talks, the House Appropriations Committee unveiled a three-week stop-gap bill Friday that will carry the government through April 8 while Republicans and the White House try to hammer out a spending plan for the second half of this fiscal year. Over the objections of many conservatives, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) again opted to keep the measure free of controversial legislative riders opposed by President Barack Obama. ... The Republican leadership late Friday was confident that it has contained any serious rebellion on the right over not including riders. And to help get Democratic support, the Appropriations panel appeared to try to pick from options already endorsed by the Senate or Obama (Rogers, 3/11).

RollCall: House GOP Unveils Three-Week CR
The lack of policy riders, meanwhile, comes as Tea Party Caucus Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) continue to wage what appears to be a lonely battle to attach a rider defunding the new health care law — a move that would almost assuredly trigger a government shutdown. It also keeps Planned Parenthood operating and allows the District of Columbia government to be able to spend its own money on abortions and needle exchange programs for at least another month, among other things. "The goal is to keep the measure as clean as possible so it has the best possible chance of moving forward in the Senate," said Jeff Connor, a spokesman for Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that handles the Washington, D.C., budget (Hunter, 3/11).

The Hill: Conservatives Want Anti-Abortion Rights Language In Next Funding Extension
Social conservatives are warning House GOP leaders they could oppose a measure to fund the government for three weeks that does not include anti-abortion rights language. Republicans released a measure Friday afternoon that would fund the government for three weeks and cut $6 billion in spending the rest of this year. ... Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said the panel was still evaluating the proposal but was "very concerned" about the exclusion of anti-abortion rights amendments (Hooper and Berman, 3/12).

Politico: Murkowski Opposes Planned Parenthood, Title X Cuts
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has come out in opposition to the House's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, making her the first Republican senator to specifically support the beleaguered organization. "I believe Planned Parenthood provides vital services to those in need and disagree with their funding cuts in the bill," Murkowski wrote in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). "I ask you to consider these programs going forward to determine if there is room for allowing continued funding." Murkowski's move follows that of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who last week came out against the House vote to defund Title X, the only federal program dedicated to reproductive health issues (Kliff, 3/11).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.