Pete Domenici: “earlier today we adopted an amendment, now that we have had a chance to review, we find creates a concern. In effect, in…”

“earlier today we adopted an amendment, now that we have had a chance to review, we find creates a concern. In effect, in our proper and correct effort to address fraud and abuse in the Medicare Program, we converted spending that previously had been subject to appropriations into entitlement funding. Because of the consent agreement it is too late to fix this problem. I had an amendment, however, that would have corrected the problem. My amendment would have provided a different funding mechanism for the Medicare fraud and abuse control program. Instead of funding this program by creating a very large new entitlement program, my amendment would have provided a different funding mechanism. The issue is not whether we should fund the Medicare fraud and abuse control program, but how we should fund this program. I strongly support the Medicare fraud and abuse control program, but I am troubled by the fact that the bill in its current form would create $1.5 billion in new mandatory spending for the administrative expenses for three agencies.”