Senate approves $3.1 trillion FY 2009 budget resolution without proposed reductions in Medicare, Medicaid spending

The Senate on Wednesday voted 48-45 to approve a $3.1 trillion fiscal year 2009 budget resolution (S Con Res 70), which includes large increases in funds for domestic programs and excludes reductions in funds for Medicare and Medicaid proposed by President Bush, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The resolution would increase funds for domestic federal agencies by almost 5%, or $24 billion (Taylor, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/5). The resolution includes $1.013 trillion in discretionary spending (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 6/4). The resolution would provide about $21 billion more in discretionary spending than Bush requested. According to the New York Times, Bush has threatened to veto appropriations bills that exceed his request, and Democrats might "try to avoid an election-year fight with the White House by holding back major appropriations bills until his successor takes office" (Pear, New York Times, 6/5).

According to the AP/Inquirer, the resolution "leaves to the next president the task of sorting out a host of fiscal problems" and "leaves wrenching Medicare and other federal benefit decisions to future policymakers." The resolution "paints a bleak picture for the next president, who will face tough decisions, such as on cutting benefit programs to prepare for the retirement of the baby-boom generation," the AP/Inquirer reports (AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/5).

Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said, "We have passed a fiscally responsible budget, and that is a major accomplishment." He added that the resolution would "expand health coverage for kids" (New York Times, 6/5). White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle criticized the resolution as a "missed opportunity" to address long-term financial problems in entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. He added, "They deferred on the decision on entitlements, but they didn't on taxes" (Clarke [1], CQ Today, 6/4).

Prospects

The House likely will approve the resolution on Thursday (Montgomery, Washington Post, 6/5). House Appropriations subcommittees likely will begin to mark up the 12 appropriations bills next week, "even though it appears unlikely that Congress will send those bill to Bush," according to CQ Today (Clarke [2], CQ Today, 6/4). Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee, said that the subcommittee will not mark up the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for a few weeks (Clarke [1], CQ Today, 6/4).

The Senate will begin to mark up appropriations bills as early as June 16 (Clarke [2], CQ Today, 6/4).

Supplemental War Appropriations Bill

In related news, opposition from the Blue Dog Coalition has delayed action on a $250 billion supplemental war appropriations bill (HR 2642) that includes a one-year moratorium on seven new Medicaid regulations proposed by the Bush administration, Roll Call reports (Dennis, Roll Call, 6/5). The regulations would save Medicaid an estimated $13 billion over five years (AP/USA Today, 6/4).

The coalition opposes the legislation because of a lack of offsets for some of the funds that the bill would provide. On Wednesday, members of the coalition asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include offsets for those funds. According to CQ Today, House leaders are "mulling" proposals to address the concerns of the coalition, whose members have threatened to vote against the bill (Clarke [3], CQ Today, 6/4).

Nussle on Wednesday reiterated that Bush would veto the legislation in the event that the bill includes domestic spending (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 6/5).