That is the big question; the hour of reckoning is near. Will the House have the votes to pass the Senate bill as is? What will House lawmakers put into the reconciliation bill? Will the Senate pass it? How will the Senate parliamentarian rule???
Here is the Washington Post’s roadmap;C-SPAN has more on the deliberations related to reconciliation.
Oh, the suspense is too much to take. Well, not really, but this is one of the most fluid legislative processes I can remember.
So will health care reform will pass this week? I don’t think we know.
Do you ever just want to sit down and listen to researchers talk about national cybersecurity initiatives? If so, you’re in luck: the Government Accountability Office (GPO) has launched a new podcasting service featuring interviews with its crack team of researchers. For policy nerds like me, this is like manna from heaven and frankly, these don’t all sound boring: there is one on prevention of sexual assaults in the military, on FDA’s oversight of ingredients “generally recognized as safe,” and on use of funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released a revised cost estimate of the Senate-passed health care bill (H.R. 3590), finding that it would reduce the federal deficit by $118 billion from 2010 through 2019. An earlier estimate found that the reduction would have been $132 billion.
This will be another talking point for supporters of reform, who want the House to pass the Senate bill as is, and then make small fixes to the measure in a budget reconciliation package that requires on a majority vote (50+1). The reconciliation move is being used to avoid a conference committee to work out the differences in the House- and Senate-passed bills because any resulting conference bill would need to be voted on by a supermajority in the Senate—votes that health care supporters don’t have. As it is, reconciliation isn’t even a sure thing, as Sam Stein points out at the Huffington Post.
Just another chapter in the interminable health care debate.
Here’s how the CBO numbers shape up, according to snippet from the blog post:
“The gross cost of the proposed expansions in insurance coverage over those 10 years is now projected to be $875 billion, reflecting subsidies provided through insurance exchanges, increased net outlays for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and tax credits for small employers. Those costs are partly offset by revenues from an excise tax on high-premium insurance plans and net savings from other coverage-related sources, leaving a net cost of $624 billion for the coverage provisions. Other provisions affecting direct spending save $478 billion, on net—mostly in Medicare—and other provisions affecting revenues reduce the deficit by $264 billion, on net. Thus, the net effect on deficits of the bill as a whole equals $624 billion less $478 billion less $264 billion, or a reduction of $118 billion over the 2010-2019 period. In total, CBO and JCT [Joint Committee on Taxation] estimate that the legislation would increase outlays by $355 billion and increase revenues by $473 billion between 2010 and 2019.”
First lady Michelle Obama, who has taken on the cause of childhood obesity prevention, will be happy to hear this: fewer high-calorie drinks are being shipped to the nation’s schools.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (a partnership of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association) in 2006 worked with Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and other soda and juice makers to limit portion sizes and reduce the number of beverage calories available to kids during the school day.
In its third and final report on the impact of the 2006 guidelines, the American Beverage Association said since the start of the 2004-2005 school year, the number of beverage calories shipped to schools has dropped by 88 percent.
The president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said in a statement that the results are “encouraging” but that more has to be done to reduce the number of obese children and youth, said to total 23 million or nearly one in three young people.
This post is for my buddy Linda: Marketplace Monday today ran a story about a Peace Corps’ initiative to recruit older volunteers. Turns out, not all cultures are as youth-obsessed as ours and actually prefer senior volunteers who can connect with village elders and who bring the totality of their experience to bear on the work they do.
Washington, D.C., and Florida are among the finalists chosen to compete to win Phase I Race to the Top education reform monies. The press release from the U.S. Department of Education is reprinted below.
16 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED IN PHASE 1 OF RACE TO THE TOP COMPETITION; FINALISTS TO PRESENT IN MID-MARCH; WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN EARLY APRIL
Today, the Department of Education announced that 15 states and the District of Columbia will advance as finalists for Phase 1 of the Race to the Top competition. Race to the Top is the Department’s $4.35 billion effort to dramatically re-shape America’s educational system to better engage and prepare our students for success in a competitive 21st century economy and workplace.
States competing for Race to the Top funds were asked to document past education reform successes, as well as outline plans to: extend reforms using college and career-ready standards and assessments; build a workforce of highly effective educators; create educational data systems to support student achievement; and turn around their lowest-performing schools.
The Phase 1 finalists are (in alphabetical order):
* Colorado * Delaware * District of Columbia * Florida * Georgia * Illinois * Kentucky * Louisiana * Massachusetts * New York * North Carolina * Ohio * Pennsylvania * Rhode Island * South Carolina * Tennessee
“These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.
“Everyone that applied for Race to the Top is charting a path for education reform in America,” Duncan continued. “I salute all of the applicants for their hard work. And I encourage non-finalists to reapply for Phase 2.”
The 16 finalists were chosen from among the 40 states and the District of Columbia that submitted applications for Phase 1. Winners for Phase 1 will be chosen from among the 16 finalists and announced in April. Applications for Phase 2 will be due on June 1 of this year, with finalists announced in August and winners in September. The only states prohibited from applying in Phase 2 are those that receive awards in Phase 1.
HOW FINALISTS WERE CHOSEN Panels of five peer reviewers independently read and scored each state’s application. The panels then met in February to finalize their comments and submit scores. Each state’s score is the average of the five independent reviewers’ scores.
The Department arranged the applications in order from high to low scores and determined which applicants were the strongest competitors to invite back based on “natural breaks” – i.e. scoring gaps in the line-up. The top 16 applications were then selected as finalists. All 41 applicants from Phase 1 will receive their peer reviewers’ comments and scores after the winners are announced in April. The Department will post the scores and applications on its Web site (www.ed.gov).
CHOOSING WINNERS FROM AMONG THE FINALISTS The finalists will be invited to Washington, D.C., in mid-March to present their proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage, and to engage in Q&A discussions with the reviewers.
The purpose of the finalist stage is to allow reviewers to ensure that the state has the understanding, knowledge, capacity, and the will to truly deliver on what is proposed. The presentations will be videotaped and posted for viewing on the Department’s Web site at the end of Phase 1.
At the conclusion of the presentations, the reviewers will meet again to discuss each application, finalize scores and comments, and submit them to the Department. Again, the final score for each application will be an average of the five peer reviewers’ scores. The scores will be arranged in order from high to low and presented to Secretary Duncan for final selection.
NUMBER OF WINNERS & AWARD SIZES The number of Phase 1 winners will be determined by the strength of the applications. While the department does not have a predetermined amount of money to award in each phase of the competition, we expect no more than half of the money will be awarded in Phase 1 to ensure a robust competition in Phase 2.
“We are setting a high bar, and we anticipate very few winners in Phase 1. But this isn’t just about the money. It’s about collaboration among all stakeholders, building a shared agenda, and challenging ourselves to improve the way our students learn. I feel that every state that has applied is a winner – and the biggest winners of all are the students,” Duncan said.
Of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds provided under the Recovery Act, the Department will distribute approximately $4 billion directly to states to drive education reform and $350 million to consortia of states that compete in a separate competition to create new college and career-ready assessments. The assessment competition is still in the design phase.
Based on Race to the Top’s early positive effect on national education reform, President Obama proposed to continue the program next year by requesting $1.35 billion in the administration’s fiscal year 2011 budget.
Such is the power of Ron Howard that he was able to get all these actors (mostly SNL vets) to help produce this video on behalf of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency — you know, the one dying a slow death on Capitol Hill. At least you can chuckle while you get fleeced. Enjoy! (That’s Jim Carrey as Reagan.)
There is a link to this Main Street Brigade as well, but it’s unclear who’s behind the group. The site’s patron saint appears to be Elizabeth Warren — and who isn’t a fan of the TARP watchdog? (Other than big banks, of course.)
Several projects are interfering with Blog Alley’s time this week, so recent posts are a bit more entertainment vs. news. Enjoy Ricky Gervais on WHYY’s “Fresh Air.” Here is the link in case the download below doesn’t work.
That is the big question; the hour of reckoning is near. Will the House have the votes to pass the Senate bill as is? What will House lawmakers put into the reconciliation bill? Will the Senate pass it? How will the Senate parliamentarian rule??? 
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released a revised cost estimate of the Senate-passed health care bill (H.R. 3590), finding that it would reduce the federal deficit by $118 billion from 2010 through 2019. An earlier estimate found that the reduction would have been $132 billion.