By a vote of 61-37, the Senate today passed its version of economic recovery legislation, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1). The House last month passed its own version of H.R. 1, and congressional leaders are already in discussions over crafting a compromise bill reconciling the differences between the two versions. AHA Senior Vice President for Federal Relations Tom Nickels said, "We're pleased that the congressional leadership is moving quickly to put together a final bill. The task before us now is to ensure that it includes the health care-related provisions we've been advocating for." AHA members can go to www.aha.org and click on today's Advocacy Action Alert for more on which provisions the AHA supports, such as moratoria on certain Medicare and Medicaid regulations; health information technology funding with important privacy considerations and payment incentives for critical access hospitals; expansion of health care coverage for the recently unemployed; and federal medical assistance percentage and disproportionate share hospital relief.