Super Committee meets, discusses discretionary spending
Today, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction held their fourth open door hearing since their creation. The topic of the hearing was discretionary spending trends and caps. The majority of the hearing centered around the topics of defense spending and revenue increases. Notably, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf testified about the need to produce specific proposals quickly. In order for CBO to score the proposals prior to the November 23 statutory deadline, Elmendorf said that the committee must produce proposals by the end of next week (November 4). The Committee announced that it will hold another hearing on Tuesday, November 1. That hearing will focus on the proposals put forward by other deficit reduction panels and ad hoc groups. Information about that hearing and prior meetings is available at the Super Committee's website. For more information on how Super Committee actions might affect rural health care, please visit NRHA's Congressional Action Kit. If you have any questions regarding deficit reduction negotiations or Super Committee happenings, please contact NRHA government affairs staff at (202) 639-0550.