Senate Passes Budget Resolution With Added Funding
On March 16th the United States Senate passed a $2.8 billion budget blueprint for FY 2007 by a narrow margin of 51-49. Vice President Cheney was on hand in the Senate in case his voice was needed to break a tie vote. The Senate budget resolution sets an overall number which appropriators then use to write the individual discretionary spending bills. Traditionally, the President sends his version of the Budget to Congress and from there both Houses make changes as they see fit. However, the Senate Budget Resolution that passed looked little like the $683 billion budget the President sent to Congress.
The Senate added $16 billion in new spending. An amendment by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) added an additional $3.3 billion in spending for low income home heating assistance programs, $1.7 billion was added in benefits for military survivors and $3.7 billion for military personal costs. A controversial provision which would allow future oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) survived the final vote on the Senate floor. This provision was unpopular among Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans and threatened to derail the entire process.
Public health scored a major victory in the form of the Specter-Harkin amendment whose passage added an additional $7 billion for health and education spending. This victory was in due in part to the efforts of NACCHO members throughout the country who called their Senators to voice their support for this amendment.
At press time, the House of Representatives is taking up its own version of a Budget Resolution. It is uncertain whether the House will pass a Resolution of its own, because some moderate Republicans are threatening to split from the Administration and vote against it. If the House does not pass a resolution, the Senate will operate under the budget caps included in the resolution it passed. If the House is successful, than the two bodies of Congress will meet in a Conference Committee and hammer out one Resolution which both will abide by.
While NACCHO members can be proud of their victory with the Specter-Harkin amendment, the battle now moves to the appropriations committees in the Senate and House. While the appropriations committees must abide by the total number set in the Budget Resolutions, they have discretion about how to divide up the money. The separate Appropriations Subcommittees each receive an allocation, from which they write the actual spending bills. This process is likely to occur in April and May.
National Debt Limit Raised
The Senate also voted 52-48 to raise the debt ceiling - the total amount the government can borrow - by a whopping $781 billion. This increase was necessary in order to prevent the U.S. Treasury from a first time default on Treasury notes. As a result, the national debt should reach approximately $9 billion dollars. This action allowed the U.S. House of Representatives to vote for another $92 million for the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Hurricane Relief.
NACCHO Member Testifies on Capitol Hill
On February 8th, Frances Philips from the Anne Arundel County Department of Health testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security. The Committee held the hearing on pandemic flu preparedness, and Phillips highlighted the role local health departments will play in the front-line response to pandemic flu. Noting the experience local health departments have in responding to public health threats, she told the committee: “Whether the communicable disease threat is a novel influenza virus, smallpox, anthrax, West Nile virus, or other emerging pathogen capable of causing widespread illness and death, there are a core of universal public health response capabilities for which local health departments around the country are planning, training, and exercising.” She also called attention to the importance of working with other local, state and federal partners, saying that “the combined efforts of local health departments and our colleagues in first response will determine the initial, and in many ways, the ultimate impact of an influenza pandemic in the US.”
The complete testimony is available at http://www.naccho.org/advocacy/washington/upload/Testimony-PhillipsHouseHomelandSecFeb06final2.pdf
Anti-Methamphetamine Provision in the USA Patriot Act
On March 9, 2006 Congress reauthorized massive anti-terrorism legislation: the Patriot Act. Included in the act were first ever attempts by Congress to curb the spread of the chemicals used to make methamphetamines. The Act includes stricter standards for those seeking to purchase pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine – all ingredients used in making methamphetamines. It also includes funding for law enforcement to fight the spread of meth and funding for rehabilitation centers.
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