A two month extension of the expiring TEA-21 legislation was quickly cleared last night after Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) spoke with Senator Christopher Bond (R-Missouri) to release his hold on the legislation. Funding for the programs in the Department of Transportation will be released, avoiding a costly shutdown this weekend, although progress is still slow on the eventual conference over a new transit bill. House and Senate negotiators met with the White House yesterday to resolve funding differences, with few details released. Thursday, 20 GOP Senators joined all 48 Democrats in signing a letter insisting that the Senate's higher $318.9 billion funding level was the lowest all could accept, far above the House and White House requests.

The expected passage of a sixty day extension to the existing TEA-21 legislation bogged down in the Senate after it cruised through the House Wednesday. Senator Christopher Bond (R-Missouri) placed a hold on the bill in response to Minority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-South Dakota) threat of holding up the new transit bill in conference. Daschle has expressed in public his desire to see Democrats treated differently during House/Senate conferences on pending legislation. Bond, in turn, expressed he was "outraged" Daschle was preventing a move to conference on the two different transporation bills already passed (S 1072 and HR 3550) by their respective members, according to CQ Today.

The Senate version called for $318 billion in spending, while the House version was estimated at $284 billion. The administration is holding the line at $256 billion, but unless a reathorization of the existing law is passed immediately, funding for surface transportation programs will begin to expire on Friday.

A new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruling may draw Congress into a politically sensitive debate over health care coverage.

The commission voted on April 22 to adopt a proposed rule that would allow companies to reduce health benefits they provide to retirees older than 65 – the age at which seniors qualify for the federal Medicare program.

The rule would give legal protection to employers who, in effect, shift some of the cost of their retirees’ health care to the government program. AARP opposes the proposed rule, and contends that Congress will ultimately have to weigh in with legislation requiring that employers provide equivalent health coverage out of their own pockets for all retirees, regardless of their age.

Congress is in no hurry to intervene. Some warn that forcing companies to pay as much for older retirees’ health coverage as they do for their younger retirees will tempt employers to provide less for all retirees.

Companies routinely offer retirees over 65 coverage that supplements Medicare benefits, instead of a more complete package of health benefits that employers usually offer workers who are not eligible for Medicare.

Lawmakers tried to address this issue during last year’s debate on the Medicare prescription law. The Senate passed version of the bill, included language similar to the EEOC ruling. However, to gain AARP’s support for the bill, lawmakers dropped that provision.

Both AARP and employer groups would like to see their positions written into law. Lawmakers opposing the rule could seek to offer an amendment to a fiscal 2005 appropriations bill that would deny the EEOC funding to implement its new rule.

The proposed EEOC rule will be reviewed by relevant federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget.

President George W. Bush and the GOP congressional leadership met at the White House on April 20th and have decided that they would first agree to an overall spending level for the highway and transit reauthorization and then attempt to appoint conferees. It has been reported that the President is holding firm on his veto threat of any bill over the $256 billion level proposed by the Administration. Congressional leaders are pushing for a significantly higher number. The Senate-passed bill (S. 1072) carries a price-tag of about $318 billion, while the House-passed bill would cost about $284 billion (H.R. 3550).

Some in Washington believe that lawmakers would settle on a $300 billion bill but that if the White House is involved in the final decision and is willing to compromise, the ultimate spending level might be around $270 billion to $275 billion. Resolution of the funding level is at least a week away.

In an April 6 letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Chairman Christopher S. Bond (R-Missouri) wrote that the Senate funding levels "are the minimum that should be included" in the final product. This is viewed as a sign that they will continue to fight all attempts to lower the Senate level.

Although there was no official word on whether Democrats or even the GOP authors of the reauthorization bills would be included in the final decision-making process, neither group was invited to the White House meeting and both groups are pushing the Senate's $318 billion funding level.

White House involvement is viewed as an assurance that Congressional Republicans will not put the President in the potentially difficult position of having to veto the bill and then watch as Congress overrides it in an election year. It is possible that the GOP leadership could insist that a provision from the House bill known as a "reopener" be included in the final product. White House officials object to the reopener provision because they do not believe it makes the bill a six-year bill. Under the provision, all apportioned highway program dollars would be cut off at the end of fiscal year 2005 unless Congress has written a new law that increases the minimum guarantee of funds going back to the states above the 90.5 percent included in the underlying bill.

The agreement between the White House and GOP leaders is also a move that presumably would allow some negotiating to continue despite Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-South Dakota) refusal to allow conferees to be appointed until he is guaranteed Democratic participation and that Senate conferees will support the $318 billion funding level. He would like conferees to “pre-conference” the bill to ensure Democratic participation, but has held short of insisting on such. Senator Frist has indicated they would not pre-conference the bill.

Short Term Extension

The current extension of the transportation programs expires on April 30, and even if conferees were appointed this week, staffers did little reconciling over the recess, saying they could not get the bill to Bush by then. Both chambers are expected to consider another two-month extension of TEA 21 during the week of April 26, although some lawmakers said the length of the extension might still be up in the air as a number of Senators are seeking only a 30-day extension.

Senator Daschle has said he could support another extension only if ongoing discussions among House and Senate staffers to reconcile their two bills are "becoming productive." It is commonly thought that Daschle, who is in the middle of a tight re-election campaign, would never allow the program to shut down, as it would result in the furlough of thousands and thousands of jobs and could put future projects into disarray.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that state pharmacy assistance programs can enroll low-income Medicare beneficiaries automatically into the transitional assistance benefit of the Medicare Modernization Act. States that have the authority to act as an “authorized representative” of a beneficiary (as defined by state law) would be permitted to enroll beneficiaries in drug cards on the beneficiary’s behalf. This step will make it easier for low-income beneficiaries in states with pharmacy assistance programs to get $600 in additional help.

Secondly, Medicare will issue a standard enrollment form that will be accepted by all Medicare Approved Discount card programs. This standard form will make it easier for community based organizations, health professionals, and consumer groups to assist beneficiaries with the enrollment process.

CMS will soon provide a standard enrollment form for the Medicare-approved drug discount card program for use by State Health Insurance Programs (SHIPs), and other partners and organizations that assist beneficiaries with their health care decisions.

The automatic enrollment policy will help many states coordinate their own drug benefits for low-income Medicare beneficiaries with the new Medicare drug benefit by making enrollment easier for the states and beneficiaries.

Twenty states have large programs that already provide drug benefits to these beneficiaries. Many of these beneficiaries will be eligible for the new transitional assistance benefit under the new Medicare Modernization Act. Individuals may be enrolled in both types of programs at the same time.

Beneficiaries who are signed up for the transitional assistance get $600 to pay for drug costs. Depending upon how the State plan is organized, this could mean state programs would not have to pay the first $600 for each of these beneficiaries, thus freeing up money to help states pay for their own program.

States that are able to automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into the new program will be able to identify which card a beneficiary is enrolled in so that the individual can return to the state program after the $600 is used without losing any coverage.