Industry efforts to drive congressional support for industry legislation aimed at changing competitive bidding and reforming CMS’s audit program gathered more momentum this week.
H.R. 5083, known as the Audit Improvement and Reform Act (aka, the AIR Act), which would reform CMS’s audit program, gained another nine co-sponsors since last week. The new backers brought the bill’s total number of co-sponsors to 36. The new signers are:
- Rep. Bobby L. Rush (Ill.)
- Rep. Collin C. Peterson (Minn.)
- Rep. Jeff Miller (Fla.)
- Rep. Steve King (Iowa)
- Rep. David Scott (Ga.)
- Rep. Keith J. Rothfus (Pa.)
- Rep. J. Randy Forbes (Va.)
- Rep. Tim Murphy (Pa.)
- Rep. Matt Salmon (Ariz.)
H.R. 4920, known as the Binding Bids bill, which would require bidders to have special surety bonds forcing them to hold to their bid amounts, attracted also gained nine backers last week, bringing its number of co-sponsors to 49. The new lawmakers to back the bill are:
- Rep. Tom Reed (N.Y.)
- Rep. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.)
- Rep. Scott R. Tipton (Colo.)
- Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter (N.Y.)
- Rep. Henry C. "Hank Johnson" Jr. (Ga.)
- Rep. Bobby L. Rush (Ill.)
- Rep. Jeff Miller (Fla.)
- Rep. Collin C. Peterson (Minn.)
- Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.)