House’s Stopgap Measure Includes Funding For Community Health Centers To Woo Democrats
The short-term measure would fund community health centers for two years. The facilities help provide health-care for lower-income families, and their funding has been caught in limbo since the program expired in the fall. The House Rules Committee is expected to meet Tuesday to consider the proposal which is scheduled to be considered on the House floor later in the day.
The New York Times:
House Pushes Another Stopgap Bill As Government Shutdown Looms
House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting on Monday night with a plan to pass a temporary spending measure that would fund the government through March 23. The measure would also include full-year funding for the Defense Department — boosting military spending, as President Trump and Republicans are determined to do — and it would include two years of funding for community health centers. But the House’s approach, to combine short-term funding to keep the government open with long-term funding for the military, was long ago rejected by most Senate Democrats, who want to pair an increase in military spending with a similar increase in domestic spending. (Kaplan, 2/5)
CQ:
House Republicans Unveil Six-Week Stopgap, Health Care Bill
The House GOP plan would pair short-term funding for domestic and foreign aid programs with a full year of Pentagon appropriations (HR 695). The package also contains a slew of health care provisions, including a two-year extension for community health centers, which have warned in recent months about likely closures that could impact services for millions of low-income beneficiaries. The measure would also provide five-year extensions of rural home health and ground ambulance add-ons under Medicare. The measure also would extend other Medicare reimbursement policies for two years, including the work Geographic Practice Cost Index which would boost reimbursements for the work portion of physicians' fees where labor costs are lower than the national average, according to a GOP summary. (Mejdrich and Krawzak, 2/5)
The Hill:
Over 100 House Republicans Call For Health Center Funding
More than 100 House Republicans are calling on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to quickly reauthorize a pot of money crucial to community health centers, which service millions of the nation’s most vulnerable. In a letter sent Friday, 105 Republicans, led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), expressed their concern over the fact that long-term funding for community health centers lapsed Sept. 30 — and urged its reauthorization in the “next moving piece of legislation to be signed into law.” (Roubein, 2/5)
The Associated Press:
House Republicans Working To Plan To Avert Another Shutdown
The negotiations are bipartisan since it takes votes from Democrats to lift the budget caps and advance a follow-up omnibus spending bill, whose overall cost is likely to exceed $1.2 trillion. That means domestic programs get their due, despite the opposition of conservatives. (Taylor, 2/5)
The Washington Post:
House Republicans Eye Defense Spending Boost, Complicating Plan To Avoid Second Shutdown
Government funding is set to run out Thursday at midnight, and though there were few fears of another shutdown as lawmakers scrambled Monday, the House maneuver stands to inject new uncertainty into the process. (Werner and DeBonis, 2/5)