Budget Reconciliation Problem Continues

Congressional Quarterly's Mary Agnes Carey gave the following assessment of the status of the Budget Reconciliation Bill in a question and answer session:

Question 5: President Bush has signed the fiscal 2006 budget reconciliation package into law, but now there is some dispute that what the president signed may not have been the legislation that both chambers passed. Can you explain this?

Answer: House Democrats have temporarily blocked an attempt by House GOP leaders to fix a potential constitutional flaw with the $39 billion budget saving package signed by Bush. The dispute centers over what has been described as a clerical error made in the bill once it had passed in the House and went to the Senate. .The mistake dealt with the amount of time that Medicare would pay to rent some types of medical equipment. After the House cleared the legislation, the Senate corrected the error.

Question 6: So what’s next?

Answer: Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, has expressed his concern that the legislation the president signed into law Feb. 8 is not what actually passed the House on Feb. 1. While the Senate has passed a resolution to state that the bill the president signed represented the will of Congress, Rangel is not so sure that will suffice. Rangel said he believes that both chambers of Congress need to vote on the budget reconciliation package again.

Question 7: Is that going to happen?

Answer: I think it’s doubtful. The bill passed by just two votes in the House and by just one in the Senate – with Vice President Cheney breaking a Senate tie – so GOP leaders in both chambers will probably do everything they can to avoid another vote. But the measure could be challenged on constitutional grounds if a court is convinced that the House and Senate did not approve the same bill that was sent to the president.

This is a matter of some concern to the Social Security Administration since the bill made significant changes in payments of SSI back benefits.