Over on the analysis side of the website we've just posted a look at the Omnibus Conference Report. From the piece:

The Consolidated Appropriations bill for FY04 fully complies with the fiscal parameters of the Budget Resolution and contains $328.1 billion in discretionary spending and $820 billion in total spending including mandatory funds...

Be sure to check out the whole piece for the latest info.

The House passed its version of the Medicare Prescription Drug bill on Nov. 22 by a vote of 220 yeas to 215 nays. The Senate passed their bill, S. 1 earlier today by a vote of 54 yeas to 44 nays.

The drug benefits in the prescription drug bill are the legislation’s best-known, most expensive and least controversial component. The bill will also fundamentally change the way Medicare works. It would create new competition for Medicare patients from private health plans, increase federal payments to doctors and hospitals, and end the tradition of charging everyone in the program the same fees for the same services. The final version, however, omitted the idea of making it easier for consumers to re-import U.S. manufactured drugs from Canada, where medicines are less expensive.

Democrats assailed the bill’s incentives for private competition as a threat to Medicare’s future and a giveaway to private health plans, insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The Medicare prescription drug plan would help many players throughout the health delivery system with provisions favorable to ambulance companies in outlying areas, home health services and hospitals that see a large number of indigent patients. It would offer higher payments to rural health care providers, a factor that greatly increased the plan’s prospects in the Senate.

The bill’s signature provision is a drug benefit that would take effect in Jan. 2006. Under the plan, the government would pay 75% of a beneficiary’s drug costs up to $2,250 each year. After that, the beneficiary would have to pay all drug costs out of pocket until their total spending reaches $3,600.

A conference report on the Transportation-Treasury spending bill has yet to be filed - even though the bill was approved by conferees on November 13 - because congressional appropriators and the White House have not come to an agreement on outsourcing language in the bill. The conferees approved a bill that would restrict the ability of the Office of Management and Budget to privatize certain government jobs. In the House version of the bill passed in September, lawmakers included a provision that would completely overturn the White House plan to outsource various government positions. The Transportation-Treasury spending bill passed by the Senate merely leavened the OMB plan, though the White House initiative generated lively debate on the Senate floor. The administration had initially threatened to veto a measure that prohibited the implementation of their outsourcing plan. However, the conference report adopts most of what the Senate bill included and only partially blocked the plan’s implementation, meaning the White House had to decide if the new language warranted a veto after the conferees approved a bill on November 13th.

Over the course of the last week, the administration has made their disapproval of the new language known to Congressional appropriators. The conferees have not filed a conference report because the administration objects to the compromise language in the bill. On Thursday, Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and House Appropriations Chairman C.W. Young (R-Florida) met several times with White House staffers trying to iron out a deal on the outsourcing provisions. Both sides acknowledge that a deal on a compromise provision will eventually occur.

Originally, the Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill was supposed to be attached to the omnibus bill to help expedite passage of the catchall measure. However, if a deal on the outsourcing provision is reached today, the Transportation-Treasury spending might be considered as early as tonight. Normally, conference reports must be filed a day before floor consideration, but the House Rules Committee marked up a rule on Thursday that waived that requirement.

Today the opponents of the most far reaching energy bill since 1992 blocked a vote in the Senate on the measure. Republicans tried to move to end debate on the measure failed on a vote of 57 to 40. Sixty votes are needed to end debate and bring a bill up for a regular roll call.

Many in the Republican Party claim that the bill will increase domestic energy production, provide new incentives for renewable fuels, stimulate new investment in the overburdened electricity grid and potentially create 800,000 new jobs. The bill also includes incentives to construct a $20 billion pipeline to carry Alaskan natural gas to the Midwest.

Farmers and Senators from farm states applauded the bill for its orders to double production of ethanol.

Seven Republican opponents joined 32 Democrats and Independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont to block action.

Opponents claim that the bill favors political donors through tax incentives and similar provisions. Opponents of the bill also take issue with its providing a partial liability waiver for producers of the fuel additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE). Producers of MTBE may soon face billions of dollars in lawsuits over alleged groundwater contamination.

Non-partisan congressional budget analysis has put the price tag for the bill at about $33 billion, including new spending and tax breaks. For this reason Republican fiscal watchdog, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, sharply attacked the bill.

Over on the analysis side of the website, we've just posted a look at the newly introduced TEA LU legislation offered in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The legislation will reauthorize TEA-21 and we've got a rundown of all the major details for your use. As we get more information, we'll continue to let our friends know the latest details.

After months of deliberations between the House and Senate, conferees reached an agreement late last week on the Medicare Prescription Drug bill. Republican leaders intervened last week in order to get the measure cleared by both chambers before the November 21 target adjournment.

A six-page summary of the conference approved agreement can be seen at the House Ways and Means Committee website.

Republican leaders are embarking on a campaign with the White House to sell their plan to a public and Congress that are divided on the issue.

The agreement would make the most significant changes to Medicare in its 38-year history and create a new government paid drug benefit for the program’s more than 40 million beneficiaries. It also would expand the role private health plans play in delivering benefits.

The deal scales back some of the most contentious proposals urged by conservatives, including “premium support” that would force the traditional Medicare program to compete with private health plans on price. Lawmakers also agreed on a way to encourage employers not to drop drug coverage for their retirees and offered more assistance for low-income seniors.

The outcome of this week’s floor votes is likely to influence the 2004 elections. Should an overhaul bill plan pass, Republicans are likely to seek credit for both helping seniors cope with rising drug costs and for rescuing an entitlement program. However, the risks are significant because there is not enough money to pay for drug coverage for every level of medical need. This means that some seniors will incur significant out-of-pocket expenses.

During conference negotiations, conservatives had to drastically scale back a proposal to force the new Medicare drug plans to compete with private plans in local markets. Negotiators agreed to drop the regional test and implement the pilot in six metropolitan areas only. Leaders also thwarted efforts of conservatives to limit government spending on Medicare. The new deal contains a provision calling for Congress to examine the program again if costs rise too quickly, but stops short of the more binding measures conservatives were advocating. Tax-free savings accounts, known as health savings accounts, were included.

Despite the backing of Senators Baucus of Montana, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and John Breaux of Louisiana, the only two Democratic conferees permitted to attend the negotiating sessions, Democratic support will be difficult to secure. And with the Senate divided politically 51-48 with one independent, the leaders would have to make up for any moderate GOP defections with votes from a handful of Democrats, who may not see it in their political interest to vote for the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Frist predicted floor votes before the targeted adjournment date of November 21.