AAPD CALL TO ACTION: Congress Is on Recess This Week

Tell them how YOU feel about Budget Reconciliation and Federal Economic Priorities

The House of Representatives is in recess until December 5, 2005. When they return they will be debating the tax bill that the Senate has already passed (See background information below). The Senate will not be returning until December 12, 2005. While conferees have not been officially appointed for the Budget Reconciliation bills (H 4241 and S 1932), Congressional staff members are already working on the final conference report. Both the House and Senate leadership want to have the conference report completed and the final legislation approved by both the House and the Senate before they adjourn in December.

CALL 800-426-8073 for the Capitol switchboard

Tell your Senators and your Representatives that you oppose their actions to cut taxes for the rich in order to finance program cuts affecting people with disabilities and others.

Call, e-mail, and/or invite them to visit programs that will be affected by these cuts while they are on recess. Let them hear REAL stores from REAL people!

Final talking points on the Senate bill S 1932

• Provides for a total of $35 billion in cuts including cuts to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by $4.3 billion over 5 years.
• $5.7 billion cuts over 5 years are to Medicare and would target a program to encourage health insurers to participate in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
• Medicaid cuts target mostly providers of federal benefits, such as pharmacies and drug companies.
• Does not make any Medicaid cuts that directly affect beneficiaries. No cost-sharing is included.
• Contains provisions for Money Follows the Person (MFP) and Family Opportunity Act. The MFP, a demonstration project, does not begin until 2009 though.
• Contains cuts to student loans and agricultural supports, including a 2.5 percent cut in payments to some farmers. Does authorize oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Final talking points on the House bill H 4241

• Will give states greater flexibility to administer Medicaid. The end result of this could be increased cost-sharing on the part of beneficiaries, as well as cut-backs on people being served.
• According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, nearly $9 billion of the $11.9 billion Medicaid cuts fall directly on enrollees.
Will tighten rules regarding asset transfers for Medicaid eligibility.
• Possible reduction of federal support for targeted case management services.
• 225,000 fewer low-income people will receive food stamps, according to the CBO report.
• Extends residency requirement from 5 to 7 years before legal immigrants can qualify for food stamps, resulting in 70,000 legal immigrants being cut from food stamps in two years, according to the CBO report.
• $24 billion in child support payments over the next ten years would be lost.
• 330,000 fewer children in poor working families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) will receive child care.
• Nearly $8 billion of the $14.3 billion student loan cuts fall directly on students and parents, according to the CBO report.
• Administrative changes to slow payments of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to beneficiaries.

BACKGROUND: Senate Reconciliation Spending Bill: The Senate passed its spending bill on November 3. While the cuts in this bill are not as punitive or far-reaching as those in the House bill, nevertheless there are cuts totaling $35 billion and including cuts to Medicaid and other vital services.

House Reconciliation Spending Bill: In the wee hours of the morning on Friday, November 18, just before their Thanksgiving recess, the House by a vote of 217-215 passed a bill that slashed health care (Medicaid), food stamps, child support enforcement, student loans, and made it harder for low-income families to access child care. Budget cuts in this bill totaled $49.9 billion. 14 Republican members voted along with all House Democrats against this bill. It had been held up for over two weeks in trying to get the votes needed to pass it. A breakdown of this very close vote is available at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll601.xml.

Senate Reconciliation Tax Bill: On Friday, November 18, again before their Thanksgiving recess, the Senate passed a $60 billion tax cut package by agreeing to leave out, for the moment, controversial provisions to extend the expiring tax breaks on capital gains and dividends. More than half of the benefit from this tax break, however, would go to millionaires! The vote was 64 to 33, with 15 Democrats supporting the bill and four Republicans opposing it. It is to be noted here that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) took a stand during the Finance Committee mark-up that forced Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to remove a provision extending low tax rates for capital gains and dividends, which primarily benefits high-income households.

House Reconciliation Tax Bill: Because the House had such difficulty (THANKS TO YOU) in passing their spending cuts bill, they delayed any action on the tax bill until they return. However, they will be voting on this probably the week of December 5, and it is possible they will recommend even greater tax cuts than the Senate. Their package will most certainly include the capital gains and dividend tax breaks that the Senate chose to leave out of their bill.

Labor/HHS Appropriations Conference Report and other legislation: In a surprise move the day before the Thanksgiving break, the House rejected the Labor Health and Human Services appropriations conference report. 22 Republicans joined all the Democrats in the House to oppose this bill. This legislation also called for spending cuts in several important programs. It must now go back to conference, and Congress has until December 17 to modify it so that it can pass both the House and the Senate before the current Continuing Resolution expires. [A Continuing Resolution, also known as a CR continues funding for a program if the fiscal year ends without a new appropriation in place.] However, there may be a glitch in that process. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has indicated that he may not support a second conference on the bill and would prefer a long-term extension of the CR. If this happens, programs in the bill could be funded at lower levels under the CR for all of fiscal year 2006. This could mean an overall reduction of $1.4 billion more than in the present appropriations bill.

Six other appropriations bills have not been signed by the President, but only two (Labor HHS and Defense bills) have not been completed by the Congress.

SUMMARY: At this point, both the Senate and the House will try to reconcile the many significant differences in their budget reconciliation bills in a Conference Committee. Many moderates in the House voted for the budget reconciliation at the last minute because they were promised that the cuts would be softened in conference with the Senate. It may be very difficult for the House and Senate to agree on a unified budget cutting bill especially if people like yourself continue to call and complain about how harmful and unfair these cuts are!

Even if the conferees do reach agreement on a compromise between the $50 billion spending cuts in the House bill and the $35 billion cuts in the Senate bill, it is probable that the $60 billion tax cuts in the Senate bill and whatever the House may decide would totally NEGATE these spending cuts putting us even further into a deficit!

Remember nothing is final yet with either spending or tax cuts! And the final passage is NOT a given. The margins of what did pass were slim. It is imperative that you keep your calls, e- mails, op-eds, and visits with your Congressional members coming. 2006 is an election year for many of them. Don't let them forget that!

Call 800-426-8073 TODAY! ! !