The US Senate has joined the House in passing a short-term government funding extension that also extends for another month, full-Medicaid funding for American Samoa.
KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye has the details:
The Senate voted 74-20 to send to President Trump another extension of government funding, just before an earlier stop-gap funding bill was set to expire.
Trump was expected to sign the bill before midnight, when the government would otherwise, partially shut down.
The good news is, the new 30-day extension through December 20th extends again, full 100-percent federal Medicaid funding for American Samoa, first passed as part of Storm Gita disaster aid.
The action again prevents a Medicaid ‘Cliff’ for the territory, when full-reimbursement would expire, forcing a reversion to the 55-45-percent federal-local match.
It also gives lawmakers a bit more time to work on long-term Medicaid reform legislation to keep American Samoa’s match even lower.
But the danger in extending funding until December 20th is that the 20th, right before Christmas, is a date when the highly-politicized House impeachment of the president could come to a head in a vote.
It’s also the date by which both parties have committed to try to come up with actual agency spending bills for the rest of this fiscal year, with big differences largely centered on Trump’s demand for billions for a Mexican border wall.
All this, could again delay final resolution of federal spending.
And while full-Medicaid funding could be continued again for American Samoa, House and Senate agreed-upon extra ASG funding could again be delayed.
The two-chambers earlier agreed to a $400,000 ASG boost in Interior spending bills.
Recent-year hikes of $250,000 and $718,000 also secured by Congresswoman Aumua Amata Radewagen, would likely continue in further stop-gap spending measures, but so would uncertainty on federal spending.
