CongressDaily is reporting ($) that language from a Medicaid bill that was overwhelmingly passed by the House yesterday may be added to the FY08/09 war supplemental bill. By placing the Medicaid language inside the spending bill, Congress would not only force President Bush to veto a war spending bill for the sake of rejecting changes to Medicaid, but it could also make Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) think twice about mounting a filibuster against it.

Yesterday the House passed a bill that would stop the Bush administration from going forward with several regulations intended to cut Medicaid services. The administration developed the regulations under the guise of "fiscal integrity," arguing state Medicaid programs are using loopholes to inappropriately claim federal funds. Bush has threatened to veto the bill. Fortunately, the bill passed the House in a 349-62 vote which, if the margin holds, would be enough to override a veto. State governments also support the bill. According to the Associated Press, "The governors of all 50 states…oppose the rules." If all this bipartisanship and widespread agreement make you uncomfortable, fear not — the U.S. Senate is on the case.

Scott Amey over at the Project on Government Oversight reminded us on Monday that there has been a lot of long overdue action in Washington this month to hold federal contractors more accountable. Scott has a nice summary of some of the bills garnering attention in the House and a few other snipits from the past few weeks related to federal contracting. (Read Scott's summary). Two of the bills Scott mentions (H.R. 5712 and H.R. 3033 will be considered on the House floor this week. Another one, H.R.

Saturday's New York Times reported on an emerging if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them strategy congressional Democrats are weighing as Congress takes up the Bush administration's request for a $108 billion supplemental war spending package for FY08: