House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) says a free-standing bill could be voted on as early as Thursday. | John Shinkle/POLITICO A Postal Service bailout?

The House voted Thursday to freeze Medicare Part B premiums for most elderly next year, even as Democrats moved to exempt the Postal Service from having to make $4 billion in payments due next week to cover retirement health benefits for its employees.

The back-to-back actions reflect a flurry of last minute multi-billion-dollar fixes, often without warning, as the government approaches the new fiscal year beginning next Thursday, Oct. 1.


Democrats hope the Medicare premium freeze, which sailed through on a 406-18 vote, will defuse what would otherwise be an October surprise for health care reform — threatened cuts in Social Security checks for millions of elderly. In the case of the Postal Service, the action closely tracks a House bill approved Sept. 15 but would allow proponents to get past the Senate now without the threat of amendments.

At a meeting of House and Senate Appropriations Committee negotiators Thursday morning, the Postal Service language was incorporated into a stop-gap continuing resolution, or CR, that Congress must enact in the next week to keep the full government operations. As adopted, the postal agency, which now faces a liability of $5.4 billion due Sept. 30, would have to pay only $1.4 billion and would be allowed to effectively defer the remaining $4 billion until after 2017.

“That’s good news” said a Postal Service spokesman, who argued the arrangement posed no risk for the taxpayer since the retirement fund holds $32 billion at this time. Nonetheless, critics argued the $4 billion will now be added as a potential cost on the government’s books given the fragile state of the Postal Service, and the whole handling of the issue is seen by many as a parliamentary sleight-of-hand.

Republicans made no effort to target the postal provision but complained it had been added without warning to the otherwise non-controversial 30 day resolution. Moreover, to doubly protect their work product, the Democratic leadership for the Appropriations Committees has wrapped it into an otherwise non-controversial $4.65 billion budget bill covering the operations of the Capitol and such agencies as the Library of Congress.

This legislative conference report can now be brought back to the House and Senate floor with special privileges that help avoid amendments.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) pointed to fact that Republicans had used a similar ploy with a CR three years ago when they were in power and insisted he had been upfront about the tactics in a public meeting.

Ranking Republican, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, countered that the whole strategy was “one of the most cynical legislative maneuvers I’ve ever seen.” And Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) said Democrats made matters worse by wrapping the spending provision into the legislative appropriations bill –taking care of Congress’s “backyard” and doing little for the rest of the nation.

On a 7-4 vote, House negotiators rejected an effort by Lewis to strike the proposed CR from the conference report on the legislative bill. But despite the cost, neither House nor Senate Republicans in the talks made any direct effort to target the Postal provision.

In truth, many had voted for the relief when a free-standing bill on the same issue passed the House 388-32 Sept. 15. And in the case of the Medicare fix, Republicans were more upset with the process than the policy.

“Democracy cannot work if we don’t let the people know why we’re making decisions, what the policy implications are not just to our senior citizens but to all our citizens,” said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said Democrats had treated himself and other Republicans “cavalierly” and owed the country at least a hearing to explain what they had just done.

Without some intervention by Congress, Medicare is slated to announce next month increased Part B premiums, which are typically deducted from a retiree’s Social Security check to help pay for physician services. This would be a routine event but for an unusual combination of circumstances this year that could result in some seniors being asked to pay as much as 14 percent more than their current premiums.

For those impacted, that increase could mean a real cut in their Social Security checks next year, since retirees aren’t expected to get a cost-of-living increase in January given the drop in the consumer price index this year.

For Democrats, who hope to be on the House and Senate floors with health care legislation next month, this would be a political nightmare. And as evidenced by the final vote, Republicans also concluded that to do nothing would be inequitable to those elderly who face the largest increases.

All this happens against a background in which one of the biggest spending fights this week—over highway and transit investments—has been between Republicans themselves.

This was seen Wednesday when the House had to decide whether to back the bipartisan leadership of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is battling both the Senate and the White House over writing a new, long-term reauthorization of road and transit programs.

Many in the House believe President Barack Obama’s administration should seize this opportunity to make long-term infrastructure investments to further stimulate the economy. But the White House and Senate prefer to put off this debate until after the 2010 elections, when there will be an opportunity to address the issue of new revenues to support such expenditures.

The bill Wednesday simply extended the current program for three months as this debate continues, but, playing to his political right, Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sought to derail the effort by denying proponents the two-thirds majority required under the procedures used.

Whip notices sent out argued that Republicans should hold firm until Democrats pledged that any long-term bill will not include an increased gasoline tax. But Cantor failed badly as his party split open — 86-85 for the bill which passed easily 335-85.

Most striking was the silence of Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). He voted with Cantor but earlier walked away without comment when a reporter asked if Republicans were opposing the bill.

Then again, Boehner had opposed the Postal Service relief earlier this month, while Cantor voted for it.