On Thursday, Congressional Democratic leaders said they will postpone work on an as much as $150 billion economic stimulus package until January 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports (Reddy, Wall Street Journal, 11/18).
On Monday, Senate Democrats introduced a $100.3 billion stimulus package (S 3689) that included $37.8 billion in additional federal Medicaid funds for states and $1 billion in additional funds for NIH, among other provisions (California Healthline, 11/18).
In September, the House approved a $60.8 billion stimulus package that included $14.7 billion in additional federal Medicaid funds for states and $1.2 billion in additional funds for NIH, among other provisions, but the package failed to pass in the Senate (California Healthline, 9/29).
Congressional Democrats "don't appear to have enough support for a major stimulus program before January," as Republicans have raised concerns that such a package would increase the federal budget deficit unnecessarily and would not help the economy in time, according to the Journal.
Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama, said that the new administration would make the enactment of a stimulus package the "first order of business" next year (Wall Street Journal, 11/21).