Moscow Times
www.MoscowTimes.Ru
September 8, 2005
Duma Sets Out Its Fall Agenda
By Anatoly Medetsky and Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writers
The State Duma will give top priority to President Vladimir Putin's plans to sink an extra $4 billion into education, health care, housing and agriculture in the fall session, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday during the Duma's first sitting after the summer recess.
The bills approving the extra spending will be sent to the Duma later this month, First Deputy Speaker Lyubov Sliska said after the Duma approved its fall-session agenda.
The Duma will give a first reading to the 2006 federal budget, including the additional spending, on Sept. 22, Sliska said.
"The budget with the changes proposed by the president will certainly be a priority bill this fall," she said during a break in the sitting.
Putin on Monday announced plans to earmark an extra 115 billion rubles, or $4 billion, from next year's budget for higher salaries for doctors and nurses, increased spending on health care and education, and subsidies to rural communities.
The Duma on Wednesday also debated plans for health care reform with Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov. Health care spending in 2006 is projected to nearly double, from 53.5 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) this year to 101.1 billion rubles ($3.5 billion) next year, Zurabov told deputies, Interfax reported. It was not immediately clear if the figure included the extra spending announced Monday.
Zurabov said that the system of compulsory medical insurance had failed to raise health care standards, and that the government would work to provide better treatment and increase salaries for doctors in municipal clinics, Interfax and RIA-Novosti reported. Doctors in such clinics, who comprise about one-third of Russia's 400,000 doctors, bear the brunt of dealing with patients but receive low salaries, he said. As part of the effort to improve medical services, 12,000 new ambulances would be on call nationally next year, Zurabov said.
Rodina Deputy Oleg Shein, an expert on social issues, said he doubted the money would reach municipal clinics and would instead be diverted to federal medical centers.
United Russia Deputy Alexander Chukhrayev said spending on treating diabetes and AIDS would be cut in 2006, despite the overall higher spending on health care, RIA-Novosti reported.
In September, the Duma will hold two more policy debates with Cabinet ministers or senior officials on the economy and on transportation, Sliska said.
The Duma will give a second reading to a counterterrorism bill that would "considerably" increase the responsibility of security officials, said Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the Duma Security Committee. "We will make it so that an official, when settling in his chair, will see a guillotine over his head," he said, Interfax reported.
The bill will define exactly what officials are required to do when faced with an imminent terrorist attack or during a counterterrorist operation. "We will work out a management system for emergency situations," he said.
The bill will take into account Russia's comparatively modest financial resources, he said. "Unfortunately, we cannot spend as much on counterterrorist activity as the United States or, say, Britain, can afford," he said.
The bill's passage has been delayed by controversy over proposed media restrictions, which were eventually dropped in July. On its first reading last December, the bill contained provisions that would have prohibited the dissemination of violent images in the media and restricted reporters' movements in areas where the Federal Security Service was carrying out counterterrorist operations. The provisions prompted an outcry from press freedom advocates, and Putin ordered them removed from the bill, saying they contradicted the law on media.
In October, the Duma will set a date for the Beslan parliamentary commission to present its findings, Sliska said. "I personally think that they've had more than enough time," she said.
United Russia Deputy Gennady Gudkov said he would submit a bill to create a public television channel as an alternative to media controlled by either the state or oligarchs, Interfax reported.
Some of the other highlights among the total of 566 bills scheduled for the fall are second readings of the water and forestry codes that previously sparked fierce resistance from many governors who feared losing control over their water and timber resources, Sliska said. The Duma will also consider a raft of amendments to the budget and to bills on tax and banking.