Happy Day (for Now)! Medicaid Cuts Bounced Back to the House

Background     Details on the House-Senate Conference Report on Budget Reconciliation An analysis of the conference report prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

December 21, 2005 —The Senate failed today to pass the budget reconciliation bill, with its harmful cuts to Medicaid mental health benefits and other programs for low-income people. Although the drive to reduce Medicaid costs will be renewed next year, this is a great victory for people with mental disabilities.

The bill, a conference report representing agreement with the House, faced a 50-50 vote, with Republican Senators Smith, Collins, Snowe, Chafee and DeWine joining the Democrats to oppose it (Specter and Coleman resisted). The Vice President rushed back from abroad to cast the tie-breaker. But a procedural move then ruled a few minor provisions out of order, so the Senate passed an amended version. This negated the conference agreement.

Now the bill must go back to the House of Representatives. But the House has already adjourned. This means:

1) No action until next year, unless the 435 members of the House are called back (an unlikely prospect). This gives advocates more time to fight Medicaid cuts and other damaging proposals.

2) If the House acts on the Senate-passed version, it will be as a routine bill, not a budget reconciliation conference report. (A bill can be subject to a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome.) This would be more complicated for the House leadership and would give House Democrats and moderate Republicans another opportunity to defeat it.

In short, a bill that was on a fast track to completion this year has been stopped for now, and consigned to a political quagmire.