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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
With majority control of Congress for the first
time in a decade, Democrats are
advocating for fiscal responsibility in order to
avoid the dreaded “tax and spend” label.
To this end, Democrats have stated that they
intend to propose a long-term plan to
balance the budget by 2012. In addition, one of
the main pieces of legislation that House
Democrats passed in its first 100 hours was the
“pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) budget rules.
Under this provision the House, for the first
time in years, will be required to pay for any
proposal to cut taxes or increase spending on
federal programs by raising taxes or cutting
spending elsewhere. The vote to pass PAYGO was
hailed as a sign of Democrats’
commitment to restore accountability to federal
spending and reduce a budget deficit and
national debt that they say have been swollen by
Republican tax cuts and military
spending. Incidentally, the President agrees
with the Democrats’ goal to balance the
budget by 2012, and Mr. Bush will have the first
opportunity to demonstrate how he
plans to do it when he submits his FY2008 budget
to Congress in early February.
This action by Congress to implement PAYGO,
along with the planned proposals to
balance the country’s budget by 2012, does not
bode well for non-defense discretionary
programs, such as spending on scientific
research, education, transportation, and
agriculture. If President Bush insists that his
tax cuts be maintained, while continuing to
propose increases for defense and homeland
security, it will leave only two routes to
balancing the budget: spend less on
entitlements, such as Social Security and
Medicare,
or squeeze non-defense discretionary spending.
If the President and Congress hesitate to
confront entitlements as it is politically risky
to do so, the cutbacks to non-defense
discretionary programs would have to be vicious
to make a difference. This is because
non-defense discretionary spending is less than
twenty percent of the budget.
BILLS, BILLS, BILLS
House and Senate Pass H.R. 3, the Stem
Cell Research Enhancement Act
On January 11, 2007, the House passed H.R. 3,
the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
The bill would expand the number of embryonic
stem cell lines available for federal funding by
requiring the Secretary of HHS to conduct and
support research using human embryonic stem
cells regardless of the date on which such cells
were derived. H.R. 3 had 211 cosponsors upon
introduction. FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs
sent a letter to every member of
Congress urging them to support the bill, and
issued a
press release once the bill passed the
House.
The Senate companion, S. 5, was introduced on
January 4 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-NV). S. 5 had 31 cosponsors upon introduction
and is expected to be considered by the Senate
in February.
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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE
The House and Senate returned on January 4,
2007, for the start of the 110th Congress. The
next scheduled recess is the week of February
19.
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