House, Senate Republicans Work on Budget

04/27/2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - House and Senate Republicans worked Tuesday toward agreement on a budget blueprint that calls for shaving roughly $10 billion from projected Medicaid spending over the next five years, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Negotiators said no agreement had been reached.

“Nothing’s agreed to until everything’s agreed to,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H. “This is a delicate time.”

Lawmakers want to wrap up negotiations and complete the budget this week.

Republican officials said House and Senate negotiators have a framework that would shave roughly $41 billion from automatically funded government programs over the next five years.

That includes instructions to slow the growth of Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled, to the tune of $10 billion over five years.

The framework also sets aside $70 billion for tax cuts.

The spending reductions would meet a key White House demand that lawmakers restrain growing federal budget deficits and slow spending in automatically funded programs.

Negotiations have hinged on proposed changes to the Medicaid program since the Senate, led by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., voted to eliminate Medicaid spending cuts and convene a commission to study the issue.

Republican officials said the Bush administration has agreed in principle to convene the commission but details have not been worked out.

A group of House Republicans also expressed discomfort with a plan to slice up to $20 billion from the Medicaid program over five years, as originally called for in the House version of the budget.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, said governors want to see the program changed and have outlined proposals that would cut $8 billion to $9 billion from future spending.

“It’s time to consider the proposals that the governors have put forth in a bipartisan way,” he said. “It’s time to reform the program.”

Nussle also called it a “pretty good idea” to put together a task force or working group to study and recommend changes that would slow Medicaid’s growth rate.

The budget sets forth a nonbinding outline that sets spending and tax cut targets enacted through legislation passed later in the year.