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Lott Sets Wednesday Deadline for Action on Health Insurance Reform Bill

Monday, June 24, 1996

Deloitte & Touche OnLine

If no final agreement is reached by Wednesday on the health insurance reform bill (HR 3103), "I’m moving on," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Monday.

"They don’t know how to make a deal; they don’t know how to close," Lott told the Capital Formation Forum, referring to Democrats insisting on further compromise on the Republican effort to add tax-deferred medical savings accounts to the legislation.

A Senate proposal to require employers to provide equal health insurance coverage for mental health also is "one of the sticking points," he said.

The outstanding issues on the proposed MSA experiment are whether there should be a cap on the accounts and if so, how big should it be, Lott said. If the experiment proves successful, "how can it be extended beyond firms with 100 employees," he continued. The Democrats want an "active vote" to expand the program while Republicans want an automatic mechanism, he said.

"The right thing for the American people and the President is to go with the package we have now," he said. "We’re close, very close."

Lott reiterated his interest in scheduling Senate floor action on the Small Business Job Protection Act (HR 3448) for July 8 but tagged the bill and the related issues of raising the federal minimum wage, the TEAM Act’s labor-management proposals and proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of a "hot potato" left him by former-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., as he departed for his presidential campaign.

"I’m opposed to it violently," Lott said of the proposed minimum wage increase. "I’m as opposed to it as much as anyone in the Senate except perhaps Don Nickles (R-Okla.)."

With Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., promising to propose the minimum wage increase as an amendment to any bill that comes up for debate in the Senate, Lott is in a tight spot. Lott is trying to devise a strategy to allow the Senate to act on a package including a minimum wage amendment, the TEAM Act proposals, a training wage that would extend for six months with no age limit and a beefed up small business exemption to $500,000, and move the package into conference to allow the Senate to continue work on other legislation unhampered by Kennedy’s campaign.

"My inclination would be to vote for the good stuff and then vote against final passage," Lott said, even though the bill enjoys enough support to pass the Senate.

The proposed repeal of the 4.3 cents per gallon gasoline excise tax enacted in 1993 would be brought up for Senate debate later in the year, Lott told the group.

Capital Gains Still on the Agenda for 1996: Lott pledged his support for reinstating a preferential capital gains tax rate, although he said such a proposal will not be included in the Small Business Job Protection Act because Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bill Roth, R-Del., opposes such a strategy.

Capital gains, a family tax credit for children, and action to ease the so-called marriage penalty all are high priorities for action later this year as part of the budget reconciliation process, Lott said.