Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - With bipartisan support, a House Ways and Means subcommittee voted Thursday to allow all 50 states to offer an experimental Medicare managed-care program.
Some 450,000 people in 15 states now are enrolled in Medicare Select, which allow them to buy extra coverage at reduced premiums by going to a health maintenance network or designated group of doctors.
The Ways and Means health subcommittee voted 10-3 to extend the Select program to all states on a permanent basis. The bill now goes to the full committee.
- Associated Press
Bill would bar new rulemaking
WASHINGTON - Asserting they want to get bureaucrats off the backs of Americans, House Republicans moved to impose a moratorium on new federal rulemaking Thursday. Democrats said the freeze poses a threat to health and safety.
The bill to bar federal agencies from any regulatory rulemaking until Dec. 31 has put the GOP leadership on a collision course with President Clinton, who says it could cost lives and has indicated he may veto it.
``This regulatory overkill pouring out of this town has endangered the economic well-being and the essential services'' of all America, said Rep. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.
Democrats say health and safety regulations are vital to protecting the high quality of life in America. ``Like the witches' brew in `Macbeth' this bill before us is a dangerous concoction that places the special interests of business ahead of the interests of the ordinary working family,'' said Rep. Cardiss Collins, D-Ill.
The first amendment to the bill, accepted by voice vote, extended until Dec. 31, 1996, or whenever the Endangered Species Act is reauthorized, any new listings of endangered species or designations of critical habitat under the act.
Exempted from the bill were hunting, fishing and camping regulations after Clinton administration officials claimed the GOP bill would wipe out the duck-hunting season this year.
- Associated Press
GOP wants national parks scaled back
WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers urged a scaling back of national parks Thursday, arguing that some hold little national significance and drain money from other better known parks that are deteriorating.
But Roger Kennedy, director of the National Park Service, told a House subcommittee the Clinton administration opposes dumping any of the 368 park units. He said reforms in the park system should focus on tightening the selection process for future parks.
- Associated Press
by CNB