[C]ongress averted a government shutdown for the second time in a month by passing a short-term spending bill Thursday evening before heading home for the year.
Vermont’s delegation split on the bill. Sen. Patrick Leahy voted for it, but both Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch voted no. Leahy and Welch are Democrats; Sanders is an independent.
The bill will keep the federal government open through Jan. 19.
It provides funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program through March. The program lapsed Oct. 1 when Congress did not reauthorize it.
However, the legislation leaves certain programs in Vermont facing an immediate federal funding cut. Some in Vermont’s health care sector are bracing for a hit Jan. 1 because of a change to Medicare payments for home health services.
The bill also includes a measure to waive federal budget rules that would trigger broad cuts to programs like Medicare because of the deficit increase associated with the Republican tax bill passed earlier this week.
Welch had been circulating a letter among his Democratic colleagues, calling on the president to include a list of initiatives in the year-end spending bill, including a budget deal and long-term protections for unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the country as children.
The final package did not include many of those initiatives. It passed the House 231-188.
The measure later came up in the Senate, where it passed 66-32.
Leahy said he wasn’t happy about the situation. “While I voted for this to keep the government going, this is not the way to govern,” he said on the floor.
Leahy said Congress would be grappling with fiscal issues again within a few weeks. He also cited a need to address major issues, such as avoiding automatic cuts to defense and nondefense spending, and renewing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Leahy said he and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Thad Cochran, R-Miss., have attempted to keep the typical appropriations process going. Leahy vowed to continue going forward.
“We will do that when we come back,” he said. “Or there will be no continuing resolution.”
Sanders voted against the resolution.
“It just seems to me to be unconscionable for the United States congress to close down, close down the shop, and go home for the vacation at the same time as there are so many enormous problems facing this country,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.
I am a big “no” vote on the continuing resolution because it is unconscionable for Congress to go on break when there are so many enormous problems facing the country that need our attention right now. pic.twitter.com/c4Q3DBkVQM
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 22, 2017
The continuing resolution does not extend a Medicare funding bump for home health providers in rural areas, according to Jill Mazza Olson, executive director of the VNAs of Vermont. The group represents several visiting nurse associations.
As a result, home health providers will see their Medicare payments cut 2.5 to 3 percent as of the beginning of next month.
The increased Medicare payment is important to agencies that provide in-home services, such as physical and occupational therapy, to patients in rural areas. The bump helps cover costs unique to rural service, like increased mileage, Olson said.
“It’s been a really important part of helping to fund home health in Vermont,” she said.
Olson expects Congress will take up the Medicare rural add-on with other similar supplements when it returns in January.
