“Some members [of Congress] are worried deficit-wary voters could make them pay a steep price at the polls,” The Hill said.
The House passed a five-year fee-fix by a wide margin of 243-183 votes last year but the measure was defeated in the Senate, where 60 votes were needed. Ever since, the measure’s $88.5 billion price tag has given both houses of Congress pause, as they worry about tough re-election battles in the fall.
This year alone, Congress passed three short-term patches, two of which arrived after the deadline. Now federal lawmakers find themselves once again weighing a short-term Band-Aid versus a five-year fix.
“We’re still in discussions about what will be in this bill,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the assistant to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The most important thing is to get off this month-to-month approach.”
The five-year fix would be exempt from Congress’ “pay-go” law, which requires budget offsets to pay for big-ticket bills. Still, lawmakers such as Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) and Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) have raised concerns about the cost.
Sen. Conrad said his support of the five-year fix was conditional on passage of some cost-saving policies he is proposing, such as eliminating the alternative minimum tax for middle-class taxpayers.
Read the Hill’s report on the physician fee fix.
