Congress Approves $2.6 Trillion Budget; House, Senate Reach Deal on Medicaid

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Byline: Brian DeBose, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Congress yesterday passed a $2.6 trillion budget resolution for fiscal 2006 after the House reached a deal with Senate negotiators to shave $10 billion from Medicaid.

The budget virtually freezes domestic spending at $391 billion, with $33 billion going to homeland security, and will hold military spending to $420 billion. It reduces future increases in automatic spending by nearly $35 billion over five years, including the $10 billion reduction in Medicaid that would come over that last four years.

In exchange for the Medicaid cuts, negotiators agreed to create a bipartisan commission, with members appointed by …