1. The House has voted to maintain sequestration cuts. The continuing resolution totals $986.3 billion in overall discretionary funding and includes 100 percent of next year’s sequester spending cuts for nondefense programs and services and about 60 percent of the automatic defense spending cuts. These levels of spending areapproximately $70 billion lower than the spending caps originally laid out in the Budget Control Act of 2011. 2. Republicans didn’t actually defund Obamacare. Defunding Obamacare in the continuing resolution only targets the parts of the law that are subject to annual appropriations. The pillars of reform — Medicaid expansion, the subsidies used to buy insurance — are exempt from this process and are funded through so-called “mandatory” spending and have permanent funding authority. The Department of Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with implementing reform, also “has the ability to fund related provisions without seeking additional appropriations from Congress.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates that there is “at least $50 billion in specified and estimated authorizations of discretionary spending” that Republicans could presumably target. 3. What comes next. The Senate is expected to file cloture on the House CR on Friday night, but will not vote until the end of next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will likely strip the Obamacare defunding provisions from the bill and send the measure back to the House. The Senate will need 60 to get on the bill, 51 votes on the substitute and then 60 votes to move to a final vote. It is unclear if Boehner will bring the Senate version to the floor, though he will likely need Democratic support to ensure passage. Congress must pass a budget agreement by Sept. 30 or the federal government will shutdown on Oct. 1. thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/20/2649481/timeline/#comment_link
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 02:42:48 +0000
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