It should not take headlines and phone calls and an entire industry freaking out to make Congress do its fucking job. But it's 2018 and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are in charge. After 129 days of no funding for community health centers, which care for somewhere around 27 million people (including 9 million veterans), Congress has finally decided that they have to do something about it.
The latest short-term spending bill, released by the House last night and scheduled for a vote today, includes two years of funding for community health centers—which serve one out of every 12 Americans—and would for 2018 and 2019 delay scheduled Medicaid cuts to hospitals with larger shares of low-income patients.
The bill, which would fund most of the government through March 23, is likely dead on arrival in the Senate. But the newest plan shows congressional leaders are serious about securing funding for those two priorities in whatever measure they pass to keep the government open past Thursday (another government shutdown is looming if they can't agree). And that is good news for health-care advocates who have been deeply discouraged over the past several months as Congress neglected to reauthorize funding for a number of their key programs. […]
There’s no clear reason lawmakers haven’t authorized the money—besides the fact the centers were originally tied to disputes over funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program,which finally got its cash last month. Rank-and-file lawmakers have been yelling at leadership to resolve the situation.
Yesterday, two-thirds of all senators signed a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), asking them to ensure the funding is reauthorized "immediately" and noting the program’s long history of bipartisan support.
The damage has already been done to plenty of clinics and systems that have already had to lay off staff, implement hiring freezes, close clinics, or put a halt to plans for expansion.
Meanwhile, even the goddamned Freedom Caucus is calling for it to be funded.
There was absolutely no reason for this to have happened—none. This was solely caused by the venality of Republicans who will grab any potential hostage for whatever the next crisis might be: tax cuts, government funding, the debt ceiling.
So, hurray: Republicans are going to finally allow funding for this hugely popular, inexpensive, not-at-all-controversial program. And then they'll congratulate themselves. But—at least for the next two years—it will be done.