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Thursday, October 06, 2005

Grassley Lashes out at White House

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing this afternoon at which Secretary of the Treasury John Snow was testifying on the president's tax incentive proposals for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) vocalized his anger at the White House for what he perceives to be a covert effort to derail legislation to temporarily extend Medicaid to hurricane victims. “Unfortunately, the White House is working against me behind the scenes, and I resent that considering how much I’ve delivered for the White House” in recent years, Grassley said.

Sens. Grassley and Max Baucus (D-MT), the ranking member on the Finance Committee, have been trying to win approval from a number of conservative Senators for legislation that would extend Medicaid coverage to all low-income victims of Hurricane Katrina and guarantee that the federal government would pay for 100 percent of the costs. The legislation is supported by the National Governors Association, Majority Leader Biill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the American Medical Association, and dozens of other groups.

The White House has proposed instead to grant a waiver to individual states who are currently providing health care coverage for victims. This proposal has been heavily criticized, particularly by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for excluding many low-income vicitims from receiving benefits and for not assuring states that 100 percent of the cost would be covered by the federal government.

Grassley has previously threatened to withhold support or delay the tax reconciliation bill his committee must write this fall if Senators do not support his Medicaid bill. Unfortunately, it seems these threats have had little impact.