http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20060331.html
According to newspaper reports (and also a prior column by John Dean<http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060310.html>), the Senate version of the legislation -- which passed the upper house only by virtue of Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote -- provided Medicare reimbursements for home medical equipment rentals for only up to 13 months. Although Republican leaders expected a majority of the House to accede to this conservative cap, the legislative version actually voted on by the House (and approved there by a razor thin 216-214 margin) provided such reimbursements for up to 36 months - a figure apparently included in the bill as a result of a legislative clerk's mistake. The House version would require about $2 billion more in federal outlays than the Senate version.
Rather than fix the mistake and have the House revote -- this time on a bill substantively identical to the Senate's -- which has been the protocol in past such situations, House and Senate leaders apparently decided simply to physically alter the already-voted upon House version to bring it in line with the Senate's rendition. The Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate then certified to President Bush that this version, containing the 13-month provision, had passed both houses. President Bush, after having been made aware of the debacle, nonetheless signed the measure.
That prompted Jim Zeigler, a lawyer from Mobile, Alabama who practices elder law, to file suit in federal district court seeking a declaration that the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 is not a valid law.
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
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