Today, the House voted overwhelmingly to provide $36.5 billion in disaster relief for victims of recent hurricanes and wildfires, as well as emergency credit to help Puerto Rico keep its government functioning. The spending bill, known as a supplemental appropriations measure, now moves to the Senate for consideration next week.
Author: Sarah Castro
Reviewed 9/22
Executive Order on Health Care Issued
Today, President Donald Trump issued a presidential directive to broaden the development of business association health plans, ease restrictions on short-term medical insurance and expand employer health care reimbursement accounts. The memorandum starts the rulemaking process, which will forge the details of the plans’ requirements. The White House is attempting to expand access to health insurance policies that face fewer regulations after several defeats of ACA repeal this year.
The new regulatory push on adjusting health insurance offerings was signaled by the White House earlier this year but deferred by ongoing and eventually stalled legislative action on repealing and replacing the 2010 health care law.
The order does two important things.
First, it asks cabinet officials to look for ways to expand short-term, limited-duration insurance. These plans generally come with less coverage than health plans sold through the ACA’s individual market, but they have grown in popularity since the ACA’s passage — even though people who buy them face federal penalties because their coverage does not meet the ACA’s standards.
The Presidential memo urges regulators to reverse an Obama administration policy that capped the duration of short-term policies at three months. If that’s enacted, those policies could return to lasting up to almost a year in many states.
Secondly, the order directs agencies to ease rules that allow small businesses, and possibly individuals, to band together in arrangements called “association health plans.” Such arrangements do exist today in some capacity, but expanding them could cause legal headaches for the Administration.
More Disaster Relief; Tax Reform Slowly, Slowly
It’s getting expensive to deal with disaster relief.
Going first, the House is scheduled to vote this week on the second installment of hurricane relief aid. While the Trump administration requested $29.3 billion, lawmakers have been busy trying to add to the total.
Texas lawmakers want an extra $18.7 billion for victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated coastal Houston. The Governor of Puerto Rico asked for another $4.6 billion to help the territory deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Florida lawmakers have asked for an additional $26.9 billion for victims of Hurricane Irma.
If all those requests were honored, the total aid package would balloon to $79.5 billion. Also, House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) has lobbied the White House for extra money for missile defense to combat the threats from North Korea.
Disaster aid is considered emergency funding that is exempt from discretionary spending limits imposed by the Sequester. However, with the ultimate damage assessment from three recent hurricanes projected to reach a few hundred billion dollars, some conservatives are beginning push to pay for long-term rebuilding costs by cutting other programs, which is a nonstarter with Democrats.
This second installment does not even consider how the US is approaching federal disaster preparedness and recover. For example, the Administration’s request includes $16 billion to cancel debt owed by the National Flood Insurance Program, which has faced mountains of red ink since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The FEMA-run program literally can not pay claims.
…and Congress and the Administration haven’t started talking about wildfires yet…
Meanwhile, House and Senate leadership are slowly trying to fill in the Administration’s framework for tax overhaul. Generally, lawmakers have said the cost of tax rate cuts would be offset by eliminating most of deductions and credits in the tax code. However, the few ideas floated publicly have run into stiff resistance.
The idea to include a border-adjustment tax, that would have raised $1.2 trillion over 10 years, has been dropped after business lobbies complained that it would raise prices for consumers. Also, the idea to eliminate the state and local tax deduction has unleashed a huge volume of complaints to tax writers. Plans to completely eliminate the “death tax” have also been sidelined as it becomes more clear that reducing of changing existing taxes will be more politically manageable than outright repealing them.
DACA Deal Proposed
President Trump released a list of measures to restrict immigration that the Administration wants in exchange for passing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law. The White House called for the border wall; tougher penalties for asylum fraud; faster deportation of unaccompanied minors; a grant cutoff to sanctuary cities; restriction of permanent-residency sponsorship by U.S. citizens to spouses and minor children; and a merit-based points system for green cards.
The documents do not specify whether all of the President’s policy demands need to be included in a legislative deal to codify DACA.
Politico has posted both the executive summary and the seven-page principles and policies document.
House Passes Budget
House Republicans passed budget legislation today that sets the stage for an ambitious tax bill that they plan to pass. The House measure includes language that would allow the Senator to pass a tax measure without invoking cloture. The Senate is proceeding on a separate track toward passing its own budget, which will have to be reconciled with the House version in the coming weeks.
The Senate Budget Committee was poised to finish work Thursday on a resolution that is more focused on the tax legislation than the House version.