Appointment of Conferees on H. Con. Res. 95, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2006
APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H. CON. RES. 95, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (House of Representatives - April 26, 2005)
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time, and I commend her for her leadership in bringing this very important motion to instruct to the floor.
It is crystal clear, Madam Speaker, that a majority of Members in both bodies oppose cuts to Medicaid. The other body voted to remove such cuts on the floor of the Senate. With 44 House Republicans signing a letter calling for no Medicaid cuts and a solid Democratic opposition, a majority of this body also prefers a solution with no Medicaid cuts.
The regular order, as my colleagues know, Madam Speaker, is to appoint conferees, instruct those conferees, resolve differences with the other body, and report back a conference agreement. But the Republican leadership knew they could not defeat a motion to protect Medicaid, so rather than follow the regular order, they negotiated behind closed doors to include Medicaid cuts in the final budget report, regardless of how the majority in both Houses vote and how we vote in this House on the motion to instruct.
I usually do not like to talk about process in the House, but this is a time when process has a very direct impact on policy, and a policy that has a direct impact on the health of the American people.
Press reports indicate that the final agreement between the House and Senate will contain between $8 billion to $10 billion in Medicaid cuts. This conference report would not only ignore the will of the majority of both houses but, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it would include deeper cuts than originally proposed by the President, and vehemently opposed in both houses.
Madam Speaker, States have undergone a wrenching budget process. When the President first proposed Medicaid cuts in early February, many Republican Governors spoke out against them. One of them, Republican Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, said, ``People need to remember that to balance the Federal budget off the backs of the poorest people in the country is simply unacceptable.''
It is unacceptable but, unfortunately, it is standard operating procedure for the Republican leadership in Congress.
I am hopeful that a significant number of Republicans will join our motion to instruct, being true to the letter that they sent opposing cuts, and protect Medicaid.
If Congress cuts Medicaid funding, States will be forced to reduce Medicaid coverage or benefits, jeopardizing needed services for low-income Americans. Over the last 4 years, more than 5 million people have joined the ranks of the uninsured. That number would more than double if it were not for the Medicaid program.
Make no mistake: Cutting Medicaid funds will increase the number of low-income Americans who are uninsured to partially pay for $70 billion in tax cuts. Many of these uninsured poor Americans are children. I do not think that it really is a statement of our values in a budget to cut the health care for our children, for the poorest children in America, in order to give the tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America. And yet at the end of the day, this budget will do all of that and increase our deficits. This is wrong. This is unjust. And I urge my colleagues to vote for this very important motion to instruct to return a conference report to this body with zero Medicaid cuts.
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