Hoyer 'hopeful' on entitlement reform this year

By Walter Alarkon
The hill.com
May 6, 2009

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said May 6 he's "hopeful" that Congress will reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid later this year, after lawmakers deal with contentious healthcare reform and energy bills.

"I'm hopeful this fall that we can focus on the entitlement issues," Hoyer said during a speech at a summit of fiscal health experts. "One of the reasons for my being here today is to sort of set down a marker that we ought to be discussing that."

Hoyer said that reining in entitlement costs is necessary to slow down the growth of the national debt and the country's future.

Hoyer said that of the three major entitlement programs, Social Security is the one that will be easiest to change. But "that is not to say that reforming Social Security should take priority over reforming healthcare - simply that we must, and should, deal with multiple challenges at once," he said.

Democrats have put reform of the healthcare system and new regulations on energy production and carbon emissions at the top of their agenda for 2009. The White House and its allies have stressed that dealing with healthcare costs is central to any long-term fiscal solution.

Until now, they have largely avoided talk of any Social Security legislation.

Hoyer also told reporters that there was "no formal plan" to take on Social Security reform. "We're certainly not going to look to other issues for August other than those two issues" of healthcare and energy," he said.

Hoyer also renewed his call for a special bipartisan commission that would produce a fiscal reform bill that would get an up-or-down vote in both chambers of Congress. Because such a commission would allow reform proposals to bypass the normal legislative process, it has been opposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House committee chairmen.

"But the truth is," Hoyer said, "that Congress has a long history of inaction on long-term fiscal issues."

Hoyer's speech came just hours after Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) proposed such a commission. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) have been pushing similar plans for years.

Though he backed a special commission, Hoyer signaled he would be open to Pelosi's preferred route of pushing fiscal reforms through the regular legislative process.

"I think that would be a preferable alternative," Hoyer said. "I think the Speaker has talked to the committees about doing that."

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/hoyer-hopeful-on-entitlement-reform-this-year-2009-05-06.html