OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Relating to the House Procedures Contained in Section 803 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003

Date: July 24, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Drugs


RELATING TO THE HOUSE PROCEDURES CONTAINED IN SECTION 803 OF THE MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG, IMPROVEMENT, AND MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - July 24, 2008)

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Mr. SPRATT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, we are here today because the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 includes a trigger. That trigger is exercised when general fund revenues, as opposed to trust fund revenues, premiums and payroll taxes, exceed 45 percent of the Medicare program.

Once the Medicare trustees determine in two back-to-back reports that the 45 percent threshold will be crossed within 7 years, the administration must submit legislation ``eliminating excess general revenue Medicare funding.''

The trustees submitted their first such report last year, projecting that general revenues would fund 45.07 percent of Medicare in 2013, the last year of the 7-year window. This year the trustees issued a similar warning, and the administration sent Congress a bill to keep general revenues below 45 percent through 2013. According to CBO's analysis, the administration's bill will hold general revenues below 45 percent until 2014 by charging higher premiums to Medicare beneficiaries who make above a certain income level.

Instead of enacting the administration's proposals, the House and Senate enacted last week into law the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 over the President's veto. CBO calculates that this new law will keep general revenues below the 45 percent threshold through 2014, just as the administration's bill would have. So substantively and for all practical purposes, we have met the trigger's financial requirements, and we have made this issue moot for the rest of this Congress.

I support the rule before us which would turn off the Medicare trigger for the remainder of this Congress. I find, as the chairman of the Budget Committee, the legislation we have just enacted ``eliminates excess general revenue Medicare spending'' and complies with the Medicare law's financial test. Consequently, there is no need or reason to exercise the trigger.

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