Whoopsie!

Source article

Small typo, big headache
By Jeffrey Young and Patrick O’Connor

A typo in the budget-reconciliation bill may give congressional Democrats another shot at making political hay out of the $39 billion deficit-reduction measure President Bush signed yesterday.

Democratic leaders could block an attempt by Republicans to correct the clerical error and use the fight to highlight their fierce opposition to the legislation, which includes spending reductions in healthcare, education and other programs.

By doing so, Democrats would raise from the dead a yearlong fight against the budget cuts at the same time that they prepare to beat back another package of spending reductions called for in the president’s new budget.

Blocking a technical correction to legislation that has already been signed into law would be unusual, but budget battles on Capitol Hill are always partisan and House Democrats believe they have scored political points on fighting the GOP budget cuts.

Democratic objections could force both the House and Senate to vote on the measure yet again, though some sources on Capitol Hill said at press time that they expect another vote on a narrow part of the bill — not the entire measure.

House and Senate aides pointed fingers across the Capitol late yesterday, blaming each other’s clerks for changing the language after the House passed the bill.

Various House leadership aides insisted the bill was altered when it was delivered to the Senate before going to the White House. A Senate aide, meanwhile, maintained that a House clerk was the culprit. The clerks’ offices in both chambers did not respond to calls for comment by press time.

Whatever the cause, the bill signed by the president is not the same bill approved by the House, aides agreed.

At issue is a widely supported provision that was intended to allow Medicare beneficiaries to purchase oxygen devices used in the home rather than pay endless rental fees. Because of a clerical error made during the enrollment of the bill, the new policy would apply to practically all medical equipment, congressional aides explained.

Some form of technical correction is needed, and the GOP leadership is hoping to move it swiftly in both chambers under unanimous-consent agreements, or UCs, said Amy Call, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

“This type of thing happens more often than people realize, but most of the time technical corrections happen pretty quietly,” she added.

But congressional Democrats are wary of being asked to cooperate quietly on matters such as this while feeling shunned by the majority the rest of the time, one Democratic House aide said. Refusing to agree to unanimous consent would be a symptom of their “frustration with the way this place does business,” the aide said.

The error has caused significant tension on the Hill in recent days, with some suggesting that the person responsible for it should be fired.

House Democratic leaders already refused to let the House complete the bill by unanimous consent late last year to force Republicans to vote again on budget cuts after returning from the winter recess.

After getting political pressure at home — and having more time to review the bill — four House Republicans who had backed the bill in late 2005 voted against it last week. It narrowly passed the House, 216-214.

Democrats have long complained that House Republicans move legislation to the floor quickly — so quickly that it is impossible to members to read the entire bill before voting.

Rep. Jim Gerlach (Pa.) was one of the four House Republicans to change his vote from yes to no. In a statement, Gerlach explained that he was surprised to learn what he had voted for in December: “I learned of a number of additional problems with the [bill’s] language relative to mental health, visiting nurses, home medical equipment and medical imaging services. Even the providers of these services weren’t aware of these problems until after the House passed the report in December.”

The House had already approved the conference report but had to vote again because Senate Democrats demanded technical fixes when the upper chamber passed it late last year. Including votes on the original House and Senate versions, the conference report and the revote in the House, the budget bill, known as the Deficit Reduction Act, has been considered five times.

Each vote was decided by a close margin, as GOP leaders in both chambers had to make promises and twist arms to move the legislation, which was a major priority for the White House and fiscal conservatives. Appeals to Republicans facing tough reelection fights or those with home-district interests facing harm as a result of the bill were particularly difficult.

This would not be the first time the oxygen-equipment language threatened budget reconciliation. Republicans from Ohio, home to the oxygen-equipment supplier Invacare Corp., briefly held up the measure in December. Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. David Hobson led a contingent that secured a compromise from Republicans on the conference committee under which Medicare beneficiaries would pay rental fees for a longer period of time before they attained ownership of the equipment.

Susan Crabtree, Bob Cusack and Alexander Bolton contributed to this report.