10/17/2013

What is in the Senate Debt Bill?: More spending, giving up Congress' ability to control the debt ceiling

How much McConnell will really benefit from this additional spending for Kentucky?  From The Hill newspaper:
. . . . The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer. 
It also includes an increase in authorization for spending on construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. The bill increases it to $2.918 billion. . . . . 
Section 115 of the text says government workers who are furloughed because of the shutdown "shall be compensated at their standard rate of compensation, for the period of such lapse in appropriations, as soon as practicable after such lapse in appropriations." 
Section 116 says states that funded a federal program will be compensated as well, and that the government will pay back states for these costs. . . .
I guess that I had hoped for more on the income verification question for Obamacare applicants.
The Senate bill uses H.R. 2775 as a vehicle for all of these changes. That bill was originally a House GOP bill that would have delayed all health insurance subsidies until a system is put in place to verify incomes for eligibility purposes. 
The Senate language does give that issue a nod, by including new rules for verifying household income to determine eligibility for subsidies to buy health insurance under ObamaCare. It specifically requires the government to "certify to the Congress that the Exchanges verify such eligibility." 
The secretary of Health and Human Services would have to submit a report to Congress detailing procedures used by the exchanges, and an inspector general report would be required by July 1. . . .
But the biggest loss is Congress' ability to control the debt limit.

The legislation also includes a McConnell-written proposal that would allow Congress to disapprove of the debt-ceiling increase. Lawmakers will formally vote on rejecting the bump of the borrowing limit - if it passed, it could be vetoed by Obama. . . . 

Politico has a list of the eighteen Republican Senators who voted against the deal.
Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) opposed the deal . . . Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Pat Roberts of Kansas . . . The other Republican senators that opposed the bill: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Tim Scott of South Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Marco Rubio of Florida, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Jim Risch of Idaho, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dean Heller of Nevada. 

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