Legislative Update

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Negotiators Strike SCHIP Deal, Agree To Slightly Modified Senate Measure – Dental Coverage and House Formula Accepted
The children’s health bill on the floor next week will include $300 million for dental coverage and adopt House-passed formulas for state funding, Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told CongressDaily today. The dental health coverage was part of a broader House-passed bill that has been winnowed by House and Senate negotiators to guarantee support from 60 senators. The $35 billion Senate bill did not include dental coverage. Grassley said Finance Chairman Baucus has found a way to add the coverage and still ensure that the measure, which mirrors the Senate bill, remains revenue neutral. Negotiators have agreed to substitute the Senate bill’s state funding formula with the House language, with the caveat that the funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program will not exceed $60 billion over five years. The current funding level is $25 billion.
House Democrats consider inclusion of dental benefits a victory, and they hope the addition will help them collect votes. Democratic House members and aides say they are not yet certain that they have the votes to pass the smaller SCHIP bill, in part because it does not include Medicare changes (such as the elimination of first-month purchase option for power wheel chairs and the 18-month oxygen cap) that attracted Democratic votes in July. Several tobacco-state Democrats are expected to drop off because the Senate bill includes a 61-cent per-pack increase in the cigarette tax. But moderate House members and aides say President Bush’s veto threat is helping the Democrats’ whip effort because it gives wavering Caucus members assurances that the proposal will not become law. Those sources also predict that SCHIP funding will be given a one-year continuing resolution after the president vetoes the bill.
To counteract the expected decrease in Democratic support in the House, as many as 30 Republicans also could vote for the bill, according to Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who is coordinating with House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois to round up GOP support. LaHood said he has spoken to moderate Republicans who like the Senate approach. House GOP leaders will urge their members to oppose the bill, and Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, said today he is certain House Republicans will be able to sustain a veto. LaHood said he hoped to organize a meeting between House GOP supporters of the modified Senate package and the president to persuade him not to veto the bill. The Senate will take up the bill after the House vote, and both Baucus and Grassley expect it to move quickly, despite opposition from some Senate Republicans. –(CongressDailyPM – 19/09)
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