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April 9, 2008 By Fawn Johnson In a rare display of unanimity, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee agreed today to place a moratorium on seven HHS regulations until April 1. They announced the deal at a Health Subcommittee markup this morning, in which the newly negotiated bill was referred to the full committee on a voice vote. Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he wants the full committee to mark up the bill next week to hasten its journey to the House floor. The bill could be passed as a stand-alone measure, or could be attached to an emergency Iraq spending bill to expedite its enactment. "We obviously think this bill is important and want to get it moved. Whether it goes separately or as part of the supplemental hasn't been determined," Pallone said. Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton said he has asked the administration to accept the negotiated deal, even though they were poised to veto the original bill. "I have reasonable confidence they will accede to my request," Barton said. Four of the Medicaid regulations are under a congressionally mandated moratorium, but that stay expires June 30. A new provision in the agreement gives $25 million annually to HHS to ferret out any fraudulent use of federal Medicaid funds by states. It also mandates two new studies, one by the administration and one by an independent contractor, to assess the rules' impact on a state-by-state basis. The new moratorium language is modeled on a children's health extension that the administration accepted late last year. Committee members have agreed in principle on offsets for the bill's five-year, $1.65 billion cost, but they are still tinkering with the details, according to Pallone. The first offset expands HHS's pilot program for electronically verifying Medicaid recipients' assets to all 50 states. The second offset borrows money in 2013 from HHS's Physician Assistance and Quality Improvement Fund, which would be reimbursed the following year. Some Republicans on the committee may not be entirely comfortable with the deal. They wanted the bill to pass on a voice vote instead of a roll-call vote, according to Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, who first requested a recorded vote and then requested that the vote be vacated. Only two GOP members -- Reps. Heather Wilson of New Mexico and co-sponsor Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania -- stayed to record their votes once it became clear the bill would pass. "I certainly didn't want to put people to a roll-call vote when Republicans felt they had an understanding that there wouldn't be," Waxman said. "It just wasn't worthwhile to antagonize anybody." Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said he wants the committee to conduct a thorough overhaul of Medicaid. "We are all in agreement that our work is far from concluded," he said, adding that he would not take steps to block the moratorium "in the spirit of compromise."
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