GREER, S.C. (AP) — BMW will build its new larger SUV in South
Carolina, investing $1 billion in its plant in Greer over the next two
years.
The
German automaker announced Friday it will create another line at the
plant, producing the X7, a larger SUV with three rows of seats similar
to a Cadillac Escalade. The company will also make the X4, a sportier
version of the X3 coupe and plans to build a plug-in hybrid version of
its smaller X5 SUV.
BWM says it will hire 800 additional workers,
bringing total employment at the plant to 8,800 people. The Greer plant
will make 450,000 vehicles a year by 2016, becoming the company's
largest.
BMW opened its South Carolina plant 20 years ago, ushering in a wave of foreign automakers building Southern plants.
The House on Thursday approved legislation by voice vote that
prevents a pending cut to Medicare physician rates for another year.
The
move, which dodges a 24 percent cut to those rates set to hit on April 1
without congressional action, came after a lengthy delay in which the
bill's passage appeared in doubt.
House passage is essentially a
take-it-or-leave-it offer to the Senate, which now must decide how to
react with just days left before the cut takes effect.
House
Republicans called the bill up under a suspension of House rules, which
meant a two-thirds majority was needed for passage, and that 50 to 60
Democrats had to support it. That led to worries all day that the House
would not be able to pass it due to Democratic opposition.
Republicans
considered pulling the measure as serious questions were raised about
whether enough Democrats were there to reach the two-thirds majority.
But the voice vote appears to have been a way to avoid a potentially
failed vote on a bill that both GOP and Democratic leaders said must
pass
Angry House conservatives denounced the Republican leadership for
abruptly ramming through a fix to Medicare doctor payments on
Thursday without a full roll call vote.
“Outrageous,” Rep. Louie
Gohmert (R-Texas) told The Hill after complaining about the maneuver to a
colleague. “I think it’s outrageous.”
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House
Republican leaders had planned to bring up the “doc fix” under a
procedure requiring a two-thirds majority to pass, but after a series of
closed-door meetings on Thursday morning, they determined they didn’t
have the votes to meet that threshold and didn’t want to stay in session
long enough to set up a simple majority vote.So with just a few
members on the House floor before a scheduled vote on an unrelated
Ukraine measure, Republicans brought up the Medicare bill by voice vote.
When no one in the chamber objected, the measure passed.
“Bullshit,”
said a visibly annoyed Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) as he emerged from
the floor following the Ukraine vote. When Mulvaney was asked to comment
about the upcoming GOP budget, he replied: “I can’t talk about the
budget because I’m so pissed about the [doc fix].”
The measure is
an annual delay to the sustainable growth rate formula that this time
would prevent a 24 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement payments to
doctors set to begin at month’s end. The change is broadly supported by
Republicans and Democrats most years, but it drew opposition from the
American Medical Association, which has pushed for a long-term solution
to the problem instead of annual patches. House and Senate leaders have
agreed on a resolution to repeal the formula, but they can’t agree on
how to pay for the $180 billion cost over a decade, necessitating the
stopgap measure.
Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a member of the
“Doctor’s Caucus” that opposed the bill, said he didn’t like the
maneuver but did not object because, he said, the alternative of payment
cuts to doctors was worse.
“This would affect millions of seniors across the country in a very negative way,” he said.
“I didn’t like the way we did that,” Fleming added. “They gave us a choice between something bad and something worse.”
The German automaker announced Friday it will create another line at the plant, producing the X7, a larger SUV with three rows of seats similar to a Cadillac Escalade. The company will also make the X4, a sportier version of the X3 coupe and plans to build a plug-in hybrid version of its smaller X5 SUV.
