View a side-by-side comparison of the House-passed and Senate-passed bills here.  View the President’s health reform proposal here.

The President will offer brief opening comments, followed by Republican and Democratic Members of Congress chosen by their colleagues.  They will then begin discussions around following four themes:

1. Controlling costs;
2. Insurance reforms;
3. Reducing the deficit; and
4. Expanding coverage.

The President will be seated in the middle of one side of the hollow square, with the Vice President, Secretary Sebelius, and congressional Leadership seated alongside him at the table.  Members of Congress will be seated by caucus around the square.

Members of Congress expected to attend the meeting include:

• Senator Harry Reid, D-NV, Majority Leader
• Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY, Republican Leader
• Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, Majority Whip
• Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ, Republican Whip
• Senator Max Baucus, D-MT, Chairman of the Finance Committee
• Senator Chuck Grassley, R-IA, Ranking Member of the Finance Committee
• Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
• Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
• Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT, Member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
• Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY
• Senator Patty Murray, D-WA
• Senator Kent Conrad, D-ND
• Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-WV
• Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR
• Senator Lamar Alexander, R-TN
• Senator John Barrasso, R-WY
• Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK
• Senator John McCain, R-AZ
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA
• Representative Steny Hoyer, D-MD, Majority Leader
• Representative John Boehner, R-OH, Republican Leader
• Representative James Clyburn, D-SC, Majority Whip
• Representative Eric Cantor, R-VA, Republican Whip
• Representative Charles Rangel, D-NY, Chairman of the Ways and Committee
• Representative Dave Camp, R-MI, Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee
• Representative Henry Waxman, D-CA, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee
• Representative Joe Barton, R-TX, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee
• Representative George Miller, D-CA, Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee
• Representative John Kline, R-MN, Ranking Member of the Education and Labor Committee
• Representative John Dingell, D-MI, Chair Emeritus of the Energy and Commerce Committee
• Representative Xavier Becerra, D-CA
• Representative Louise Slaughter, D-NY
• Representative Robert Andrews, D-NJ
• Representative Jim Cooper, D-TN
• Representative Paul Ryan, R-WI
• Representative Marsha Blackburn, R-TN
• Representative Charles Boustany, R-LA
• Representative Peter Roskam, R-IL

** Note: Senator McConnell and Leader Boehner will designate one additional Republican member to attend.**

TweetCongress.org enables conversation between lawmakers and voters, in real time. Creators decided to build this site after searching for their local representatives on Twitter and were amazed at how many people on the Hill aren’t tweeting. They decided to build a grassroots effort to get the men and women in Congress to open up and have a real conversation with the voters.

It’s simple to join. Find your Representatives and begin to follow them. What if they aren’t tweeting? Sign their petition and get them started.

To learn more about twitter click here.

To follow C3 on Twitter click here.

You will find below the preliminary details on the funding for the NIH and CDC in this package. I will keep everyone updated as new information is released.

• National Institutes of Health: $30.3 billion for NIH, a $938 million funding increase over FY 2008.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: $6.6 billion for CDC, a $239 million funding increase over FY 2008.

Included in this bill would be a key healthcare provision:

$1.2 billion is included for the National Institutes of Health, $966 million is included to improve public health to cope with a potential pandemic flu outbreak or the use of a biological weapon, and $46 million is included for the Centers for Disease Control for combating infectious diseases and investigating disease clusters.

• National Institutes of Health (NIH). Even with the $150 million included in the first stimulus bill, NIH funding failed to keep up with biomedical inflation in FY08 for the fifth year in a row, a trend that has discouraged many young scientists from this field and puts the Nation at risk of losing a generation of talented investigators. The second stimulus includes $1.2 billion to restore some of the purchasing power of NIH that was lost because of inflation in the past five years and allow NIH to award at least 3,300 new research project grants that could lead to cures and treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and many other devastating diseases.

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The bill provides $46 million for the CDC for combating infectious diseases and investigating disease clusters.

• Bioterror Attack and Pandemic Flu Preparedness. The bill provides $905 million for the Public Health and Social Services (PHSSEF) to enhance the Nation’s preparedness against a bioterrorist event through the advanced development of priority medical countermeasures and activities that support the distribution and dispensing of medical countermeasures. This funding would also improve the Nation’s preparedness in the event of an influenza pandemic. In addition, $35 million is included for EPA and $27 million for the Department of Homeland Security to deploy additional sensors for biological agents.

“American families – and our economy – are in crisis over health care. We can’t get coverage to the 61 million who are either uninsured or underinsured without a major overhaul of the system, and there’s no way to really solve America’s economic troubles without fixing health care for the long term. I believe the policy ideas in this paper are the right way to start,” said Baucus.

Click here to read the Senator’s “Call to Action.”

“We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” – President Abraham Lincoln

Happy Election Day!

You’ve studied the issues, now the only thing left to do is cast your ballot. While you wait for the returns to come in, pass the time with a fun video on “Why we vote.”

The president signed the $634 billion spending bill on the last day of the federal government’s budget year. Even though the bill was more expensive than the president would have liked, it was a piece of legislation that was a “must pass” before Congress adjourns.

As mentioned earlier, the Senate attempted to add a $56 billion dollar stimulus package that would have included $1.2 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unfortunately the measure failed to receive the 60 votes needed.

A CR was needed due to the fact not one of the twelve annual spending bills was passed this year, which caused both the White House and Congress to point fingers at each other.

During debate on Saturday, Senators Reid (D-NV) and Byrd (D-WV) offered a $56 billion economic stimulus package as an amendment to the CR. This package would have included an additional $1.2 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Fiscal Year 2009. Unfortunately, the vote fell short (52-42) of the sixty votes needed to move the package forward, ending efforts to increase funding for the NIH and NCI.

So what does this mean for cancer? Federal investment into cancer research will remain at the FY 2008 levels. Funding trends over the past five years for cancer research and control are beginning to jeopardize the progress that is being made. After accounting for biomedical inflation, NCI’s budget has decreased by more than 16.5 percent since FY 2003.

Prospects for the bill remain uncertain as Republicans have voiced only halfhearted support. Below is detailed information the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), has released on the legislation. This issue is expected to be a high priority when legislators return following the August recess.

Stay Tuned…

• $570 million for nutrition programs;
• $792 million in loans and grants for rural community facilities, such as hospitals, clinics, health and safety vehicles and equipment, and adult and child care facilities;
• $500 million for NIH for grants for studies on cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and other diseases;
• $350 million to improve hospital care in Louisiana and Mississippi;
• $172 million for USDA to upgrade computer programs and implement the farm bill;
• $91 million to address public health and social services needs after natural disasters; and
• $26 million for CDC to treat infectious diseases.

Michelle’s Law is inspired by Michelle Morse. Michelle was a full time college student at Plymouth State University when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Her doctors advised her to cut back on her course load while undergoing chemotherapy, but she could not because she would lose her family’s health insurance when she needed it most. Michelle died as she fought to regain her health while going to school full-time.

“No college student should be forced to undergo a full course load while being treated for a serious illness,” Representative Hodes (D-NH), the sponsor of the bill, said. “Today, we took another step forward in passing this legislation in honor of Michelle’s memory and to ensure that no American student ever has to suffer her fate.”