On Monday, February 4, 2013, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 297, the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2013, under a suspension of the rules. The bill was introduced on January 15, 2013, by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and referred to the Committee on Energy & Commerce, which reported the bill by unanimous consent.

H.R. 297 amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize funding for graduate medical education programs in children’s hospitals until 2017 at the current authorization level. H.R. 297 also extends the reporting deadline to Congress from 2011 to 2016.

On September 20, 2011, the House passed H.R. 1852 by voice vote.  H.R. 1852 is nearly identical to H.R. 297, with changes limited to technical corrections and updates.  For more information, please see H.R. 1852, located here.

CBO is in the process of scoring the bill.  However, CBO estimated that similar legislation passed in the 112^th Congress “would cost $248 million in 2012 and $1,568 million over the 2012-2016 period, assuming the appropriation of the authorized amounts. Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because it would not affect direct spending or revenues.”