WASHINGTON--On Thursday, Medicaid, at least for the moment, hopped off the Senate's chopping block--but made no such move in the House, where lawmakers kept cuts on the table.

The Senate voted 52-48 in favor of a FY 2006 budget resolution with an attached amendment that would scrap instructions to cut approximately $14 billion from Medicaid. In its place, the measure supports legislation (S. 338) that would create a 23-member bipartisan commission to present recommendations for a broad overhaul of the federal-state health program by fiscal 2007.

On the same day, the House narrowly approved 218-214 a FY 2006 budget resolution that would cut about $15.1 billion for Medicaid over five years.

The amendment preventing cuts on the Senate side was offered by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who urged members to make changes to Medicaid "right, not fast." Smith successfully garnered support from Democrats and the GOP, which some say signals a widening rift between Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House. Earlier this year, President Bush proposed $60 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years. Such cuts are politically sensitive, analysts say, particularly when state governments are making their own Medicaid cuts.

"I've seen my state already--without these cuts--have to eliminate dental care and eye care," Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, told the Washington Post. "So this [budget] would be devastating for the state of Ohio and the poor of Ohio."

The amendment has raised eyebrows in the House, where Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, said he feared the House and Senate may not be able to reach middle ground.

"It's very disappointing to us what's going on over there," Nussle told reporters last week. "I hate to be a naysayer about this, but I'm not sure how we get [an agreement] with the Senate ... Last year, they were at least trying. This year, I think they almost gave up before they started the process."

The representative was vocal during last week's budget debates, saying the government should fix Medicaid's financial troubles now rather than later. Nussle called Medicaid a program that's growing "unsustainably out of control."

The budget resolutions went to committee late last week.