Senate Fails To Schedule Vote on House Economic Stimulus Bill Before Adjourning, Issue Dead for Year

Congress "officially buried" the economic stimulus package on Dec. 20, after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) declined to schedule a Senate vote on a bill approved by the House early that morning, the Washington Post reports (Kessler/Dewar, Washington Post, 12/21). The House bill, a revised version of a measure the chamber approved in October, would have included $33 billion in funds to extend benefits to unemployed workers and would have provided them with a tax credit to cover 60% of the cost of private health insurance. It also included a number of tax provisions targeted at businesses and individuals (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/20). Senators who supported the House bill appeared to have at least 52 votes in favor of the measure, but they lacked the 60 votes necessary to "get around procedural delays" (Espo, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/21). Late yesterday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) tried to bring up the bill, but Daschle objected, trying instead to pass a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits. Lott objected to that move, and "the matter was dropped," the Post reports (Washington Post, 12/21). Daschle said the House bill did not contain enough "permanent aid" for unemployed workers who lack health coverage, and that it cut taxes "too much" (Bayer, Washington Times, 12/21). "We only have three problems with the stimulus package the House passed [Dec. 20]: content, stimulus value and cost," Daschle said (Kirchoff, Boston Globe, 12/21).

Politics to Blame?
The "great economics stimulus debate of 2001 had much more to do with politics than economics," the Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the overall talks "largely ... foundered" on the issue of health benefits for the uninsured. Republican and Democratic leaders had been able to reach agreement on a "wide range of issues," but not on the health benefits (Murray/McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 12/21). Lawmakers on both sides of the debate have vowed to bring up the package again when Congress resumes business in January (AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/21).