Senate Dems circulate new version of proposal to extend enhanced federal Medicaid payments

The Hill's Healthwatch Blog: Tuesday morning, the Republican Policy Committee sent a memo "to staffers highlighting the major changes in the Senate bill that extends enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states for six months." On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tabled an earlier version of this measure after "it received a bad score from the Congressional Budget Office. Reid then filed for cloture on the new bill, which contains the same $16.1 billion, phased-down Medicaid enhancement as the original bill; a vote is expected Wednesday." Among the package's major changes is a new start date for cuts to the enhanced food stamp benefit program provided under the recovery act. They would begin in 2014 rather than 2015 (Pecquet, 8/3).

Politico: "The additional savings are sure to be painful, but Democrats also have a chance to address concerns raised by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, two Maine Republicans whose support is needed and who had been worried about a proposed $107 million cut from Navy shipbuilding funds — an issue important to the Bath Iron Works shipyard in their home state." An early draft of the new bill language "indicated that the shipbuilding cut had been dropped from the text" (Rogers, updated 8/3).