Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Spending Bill Likely To Include Most Of Obama's Request For Ebola-Fight Funding
The relatively straight path from the House GOP’s closed-door discussion of their options Tuesday to next week’s passage of a bipartisan spending bill would stand in contrast to the run-up to the October 2013 partial government shutdown. Last fall, the House and Senate lobbed bills between the chambers, as Republicans sought to strip funding for the 2010 health-care law and Democrats insisted on restoring it. (Peterson, 12/4)
President Barack Obama will be awarded the bulk of his $6.2 billion request to fight Ebola in Africa, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Thursday. (Taylor, 12/4)
Discretionary spending including defense is capped at just under $1.014 trillion — a virtual freeze at current levels. And the two big off-budget increases — to fight Ebola and the Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria — are emergencies that Republicans can’t afford to ignore. For example, the tentative $5.3 billion agreement on Ebola funding — covering foreign aid and health accounts — would give Obama much of his $6.2 billion request. And Republicans want all — if not more — of the extra money requested by the president since last June to plus-up overseas contingency funds for the Pentagon, now expected to receive about $64 billion in OCO dollars under the draft 2015 bill. (Rogers, 12/4)
