The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday sent a bill denying federal funding for abortion to the full chamber for consideration.

In a 23-14 vote, the panel approved H.R. 3, "The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," on a largely party-line vote. Puerto Rico Del. Pedro Pierluisi was the only Democrat to vote for the bill.

Before sending the measure to the full House, the panel removed a controversial provision that would have redefined rape as "forcible rape," which Democrats on the committee charged was an effort to prevent minors from obtaining abortions.

Republicans had agreed to drop that language shortly after the provision came under intense scrutiny in February.

"I am pleased that public pressure has caused the sponsors to reconsider their extreme position, and that we will have the opportunity to remove those outrageous provisions," Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) said at the mark-up.

During the nearly three-and-a-half-hour meeting, Judiciary Committee members exchanged highly charged barbs over whether the bill would ban abortion outright.

Ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.) said "this bill seeks to expand restrictions in current law and to impose an unprecedented penalty — by use of the tax code — on privately funded healthcare choices made by women and their families. Its goal — and effect, if ever enacted — is to make abortion and coverage for abortion services completely unavailable."

Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said the bill would not ban elective abortion.

"H.R. 3 does not ban abortion. It also does not restrict abortions, or abortion coverage in healthcare plans, as long as those abortions or plans use only private or state funds," Smith said.
 
He added that "now is the time for Congress to pass one piece of legislation that prohibits the federal funding of abortions and prohibits the use of fiscal policy to encourage or subsidize abortions."

The administration had asked for a clarification after some states said they would stop efforts to implement the new law.

Forty-two Republicans are asking Obama to withdraw the nomination of Don Berwick, who they say supports healthcare rationing.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) on Thursday announced his intention to introduce legislation that funds training for resident pediatricians at children's hospitals.

The Obama administration's proposed budget for 2012 would eliminate the $300 million annual appropriation that funds graduate medical education programs that train resident pediatricians. The budget would replace the program with "targeted investments to increase the primary care workforce."

Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, announced his "disappointment" with the proposed cut during a hearing Thursday on the 2012 budget.

"Eliminating this program would have a major negative impact on access to primary care, and impact access to specialty care for children," Pallone told Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the sole witness. "I'm committed to reauthorizing and funding this program and will introduce a bill to do that soon."

Pallone said the administration's proposal to focus instead on primary care training seems to make little sense because of the dearth of subspecialists in pediatrics, many of whom are trained through children's hospitals.

"We actually need more subspecialists," he said.

Sebelius said the cut was forced by the growing deficit.

"Your concern about this program we have heard from a number of people," she said. "Any other budget time this would not have been one of the recommendations ... This trade-off is very difficult."

The National Association of Children's Hospitals slammed the cut last month, saying it would have a "dramatic negative effect on the pediatric workforce pipeline at a time when children's timely access to pediatric care is already impaired."

A progressive group launched a new billboard campaign in the districts of three GOP lawmakers urging them to oppose House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system.

Americans United for Change put up billboards in the districts of Reps. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) and Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) that all offer the same message: “Don’t privatize my Medicare.”

House Republicans said they will pitch a major Medicare reform in their 2012 budget when it comes out this spring, but Democrats have been trying to link the GOP to Ryan’s controversial plan.

House GOP leadership has been mum about what its Medicaid reform package will look like, while some House Republicans have tried to distance themselves from the Ryan plan in the face of Democrats' eagerness to exploit it.

"The roadmap is one person's idea," said Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky.) during a Ways and Means Committee hearing two weeks ago. "It's not representative of the party."

A new poll released Thursday morning showed that 28 percent strongly oppose the Ryan plan, while 12 percent embraced it.

Having an “adult conversation” on entitlement reform is going to be a tough sell for most American adults, according to a new poll.

Less than one in five adults support spending cuts in the Medicare healthcare program for seniors as a means to significantly rein in the massive federal budget deficit, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. More than half (54 percent) said they opposed such a measure, while 27 percent had no opinion.

Forty-six percent said significant cuts to Medicare were “totally unacceptable,” while 7 percent said they are appropriate. Thirty-five percent said cuts to state Medicaid healthcare programs for the poor were equally unacceptable, and 9 percent said they were “totally acceptable.”

The poll was conducted almost two weeks after President Obama passed on entitlement reform in his 2012 budget, urging lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to have an “adult conversation” with his administration about how to gain control over skyrocketing entitlement costs. Republican lawmakers have criticized Obama for not proposing reforms, and have promised to pitch their own solutions in the spring.

Wednesday was "Fraud Day" on the Hill, with three congressional panels turning their sights to Medicare waste, fraud and abuse. After all the excitement Wednesday, the attention turns now to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's Thursday testimony to a House panel, and an expected clarification from a federal judge about whether he meant to stop the healthcare reform law's implementation.

Bipartisan Senate duo wants Medicare to make payments to doctors public: Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are collaborating on legislation to require the federal government to make public how much it pays doctors who participate in Medicare, a Senate staffer said.

The senators argue that making payments public could help combat the massive fraud that's rampant in the Medicare program. Physicians' groups, however, say making payment information public would violate doctors' privacy. Julian Pecquet has the story.

Top Senate Republican wants probe of Castro Medicare connection: Grassley asked HHS officials testifying to the Senate Finance Committee if they knew of evidence that Cuba might be defrauding the Medicare program. Seven of the top 10 healthcare fraud fugitives named last month are of Cuban origin, and six are said to be hiding on the island. Read the story here.

1099 repeal vote coming: The House is expected to pass repeal of the healthcare reform law's 1099 provision on Thursday, but the unpopular IRS reporting requirement is far from being eliminated. Democrats oppose the bill's pay-for, which requires greater recapture of subsidy overpayments on health insurance exchanges opening in 2014. The White House formally announced its opposition for the offset Tuesday night.

Dems try to grab centrists on abortion bills: Democrats are already playing defense ahead of a Thursday House Judiciary Committee markup of H.R. 3, a bill from Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) that would ban tax breaks for healthcare plans that cover abortion. During a Wednesday call with reporters, Democrats on the panel said they don’t expect the bill to make it into the Democratic-controlled Senate, but that didn’t stop them from hitting Republicans on what they think can be an issue that helps Democrats win over centrist voters.

“I think it’s awoken a sleeping giant of activism,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).

Sens. Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassley are collaborating on legislation that would make Medicare payments public.

Bilking Medicare out of millions of dollars is "incredibly easy," a convicted felon told a House oversight subpanel Wednesday afternoon.

Aghaegbuna "Ike" Odelugo, who faces sentencing this spring for Medicare fraud, told lawmakers it didn’t take “more than a month” to develop a scheme that swindled Medicare out of nearly $10 million over a three-year period.

Odelugo, a Nigerian native who gamed Medicare’s durable medical equipment (DME) system, said he only needed basic data-entry skills and a few fraudulent marketers.

“With these two essential ingredients, one possesses a recipe for fraud and abuse,” Odelugo told the House Ways and Means oversight subpanel.