Effects of the Government Shutdown on the HME Industry

With the government shutdown, business on Capitol Hill has been far from usual. The budget/debt limit controversies are still not resolved; they have only been extended a few months, so we may well have a déjà vu experience early in 2014. The government shutdown ended after 16 days of a partial government shutdown with both the Senate and House quickly approving a deal negotiated by Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and the formation of a budget conference committee charged with finding common spending ground between the House and Senate. This new budget conference committee is led by the House and Senate Chairs and ranking minority leaders of the respective Budget Committees: Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). The budget conference committee is responsible for returning a spending plan to both the House and Senate by Dec. 13. The most likely outcome is an agreement on discretionary spending levels in advance of the continuing resolution in January. There is no immediate consequence if the committee ends up with no agreement; but if no progress is made before the current continuing resolution expires in mid-January, Congress will be in the same position it was on Oct. 1 when the government shutdown began. In March of this year, both the House and Senate passed budgets, but attempts to convene a conference committee to resolve the differences between the two packages ended in failure. Under the new agreement coming out of the October Reid-McConnell deal—which reopened the government and suspended the debt ceiling through Feb. 7—the new budget conference committee is responsible for developing a broader compromise on spending and deficit reduction. This new conference committee has a different and less lofty mandate than the 2011 “Supercommittee,” whose failure to reach compromise in late 2011 led to sequester spending cuts that began in January 2013. The 2011 Supercommittee was charged with cutting at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years in order to avoid larger across the board sequestration spending cuts. The new budget conference committee is charged with two goals. First, they are to set spending levels for the next year, and those numbers are then used to develop appropriations bills, the spending measures needed to avoid Congress’s continued use of continuing resolutions. With no House-Senate compromise budget package this year, the appropriations bills in the House and Senate were each unlikely to become law. If the new budget conference committee can agree on overall spending levels, it could facilitate the appropriations process and avoid last minute continuing resolutions. Second, the budget will act as a ten year plan. The House and Senate budgets each includes long term goals for balancing the federal budget, but each does it very differently. The Republican-led House budget would make deep cuts in the long term, overhaul entitlement programs and include no new taxes. The Democratic-led Senate budget package would leave entitlement programs as is, and balance the budget primarily by closing certain tax loopholes. In addition to House and Senate budget committee chairs and ranking minority members, the other committee members are: House Republicans Tom Cole (R-OK), Tom Price (R-GA) and Diane Black (R-TN), and House Democrats Nita Lowey (D-NY) and James Clyburn (D-SC). On the Senate side, the entire Senate Budget Committee serves on the budget conference committee: Democrats Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Coons (D-DE), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Tim Kaine (D-VA). Both Senate independents, Senators Angus King (ME) and Bernie Sanders (VT), who generally caucus with the Democrats, will also serve on the committee. So what does this mean for the HME community? Amidst this continued Congressional focus on the budget, we must continue with our mission to push H.R. 1717, the Market Pricing Program Bill, and urge more Representatives to sign on. We must demonstrate to Congress the ill-effects of this program in our respective districts—how are patients impacted, how is your business impacted? Building the political will in Congress to replace this program is critical.