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News and updates

News and updates

House to Consider Multi-Bill Spending Package

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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

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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

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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.

Repeal Now, Replace Later?

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Yesterday evening, two more Republican Senators– Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas– jointly announced their opposition to the Senate healthcare bill that was being push forward by the Republican leadership.  Their statements increased the number of Senate Republicans opposing the bill to four, with Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky being the other two.  With all Democrats opposed to the bill, the announcements from Lee and Moran have forced Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to abandon his plans on the bill.

Last evening, Leader McConnell announced that, as a result, he will pursue a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) with the repeal kicking in after two years to allow, in theory, lawmakers and the White House to draft and implement a new plan to prevent individuals from losing coverage.  It remains to be seen how much support such a strategy has.