Early in the morning on November 18, the House approved, 217-215, the FY2006 spending reconciliation bill (H.R. 4241), which would establish $49.5 billion in savings over five years. The House Budget Committee approved the measure on November 3 (see The Source, 11/4/05). The Senate approved its version of the bill (S. 1932) the same day. A House and Senate conference committee will now meet to work out differences between the two bills.
Members were not allowed to offer amendments during the floor debate; however, the rule providing for consideration of H.R. 4241 modified a provision in the bill concerning food stamps. As approved by the House Budget Committee, the measure would have extended from five until seven the minimum number of years a legal permanent resident must live in the United States before he or she would be eligible for food stamps. The rule exempted those individuals who are 60 or older, have already applied to be naturalized citizens, and are receiving food stamps at the time of enactment of the bill. The rule also maintained the $3 co-payment for Medicaid recipients whereas the original bill would have raised the co-payment to $5. Finally, the rule struck a provision in the bill that would have allowed oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
During debate on the rule, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) expressed his concern regarding provisions in the bill that would cut funding for programs benefiting low-income families. He stated, “It is the Republican season of giving, and here is what it means: we take from the sack of the poor children in this country 333,000 child care dollars and put it in the rich sock. It is Christmas time. Take $700 million from Social Security and put it in the rich stocking. Take child support, $21 billion from Child Support Enforcement and put it in the rich stocking. Take Medicaid from the poor, $10 billion, and put it in the rich stocking. Student loans, $14 million, and give that to the rich stocking. And food stamps from 300,000 tables we take and put it in the rich stocking. Finally, foster children, $600 million from foster children in this country goes into the sock of the rich because we have taken it from the poor and we have given it to the rich…You [Republicans] will disguise this as a Christmas stocking with presents, just in time for the holidays. But it is a heavy-handed club used on the American people.”
In response, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) noted “that between 1999 and 2003, total child support enforcement administrative expenditures went up almost 30 percent; 29 percent between 1999 and 2003, as the case load declined 8 percent. Again, their [Democrats] rhetoric does not match well with the facts.” He added, “It would be important to have the facts be accurate, and the facts are that these administrative costs that are being discussed in this bill are a shift in what has been a double-dipping practice that has been used by States to draw down Federal dollars and then collect administrative costs as if the original Federal dollars had been generated in that State in the first place. This is not, as the gentleman has characterized, the Grinch or any other mean-spirited person taking treats from children or from their holiday stockings that have arrived a month and a half early.”
