The Senate Republican leadership has decided to schedule a vote on a “motion to proceed” on the healthcare legislation for later this afternoon. Many observers view the decision by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to return to Washington to vote as a positive sign for those pushing to start debate on a healthcare bill. However, the outcome of the vote, which is basically on a motion to start debate on the issue, still remains up in there.
Category: 2018 UW Federal Agenda
Senate Attempts to Move Forward on Healthcare
Later this week, including as soon as tomorrow, the Senate Republican leadership will attempt to move forward on its attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as they try to gather enough votes among Republicans to start floor debate on the issue. Complicating matters is the fact that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is still in Arizona recovering from surgery.
Another complication for the leadership is the lack of clarity on which underlying measure the members are voting on. As Republican Senators are being pushed to support a “motion to proceed” on a bill, there is no agreement on which bill would proceed if the vote were successful. No decision has been made on whether a measure to simply repeal Obamacare with a two-year delay or some version of repeal-and-replace bill would serve as the vehicle to start debate.
The outcome of the vote is uncertain at this point.
House to Consider Multi-Bill Spending Package
The House Rules Committee started meeting tonight to go over which of the more than 300 amendments would be made in order during the floor consideration of a multi-bill spending package when it hits the House floor later this week.
The “minibus” currently under consideration includes four of the 12 FY2018 spending bills: Defense, Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction. While the four-bill minibus package is the bill under consideration, depending on the level of support within the House Republican conference, the House leadership could decide to bring an omnibus spending package instead, one which would contain all 12 bills for FY2018.
Repeal of ACA Would Lead to 32 Million More Uninsured
An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of a Senate Republican plan to essentially repeal most of the current provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement shows that it would increase the number of uninsured individuals by 32 million by 2026.
The same CBO review projects that individual premiums would increase by 25 percent in 2018 and eventually double by 2026, relative to projections under current law.
Busy Day Expected Today
Both House Appropriations and Budget Committees are expected to be busy today.
The Budget Committee is scheduled to take up its FY2018 budget resolution today and the committee action is expected to last for most of the day. While the budget resolution is not law, it will serve as a fiscal blueprint for FY2018. Among the provisions of interest in the budget resolution include:
- Instructions to 11 committees to find cuts totaling $203 billion in mandatory spending
- tax reform instructions
- cuts totaling $6.7 trillion below current projections through 2027
- Total discretionary spending level of $1.132 trillion in FY2018: $621.5 billion for defense programs and $511 billion for non-defense programs
The spending level called for discretionary defense programs for FY2018 will require change in law. Even if the budget resolution is adopted in committee, questions remain as to whether it will pass the entire House.
With respect to the appropriations process, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up and clear today the last two spending bills for FY2018, including the Labor-HHS-Education bill, which funds biomedical research and education programs.
In related news, the House Republican leadership announced that it plans to bring up a “minibus” package of four spending bills to the floor next week for consideration. The package will include the following bills: Energy and Water Development; Defense; Legislative Branch; and Military Construction- Veterans Administration.
Office of Federal Relations will provide further details.