Legislative Activity House Votes on Defunding Planned Parenthood With the fiscal year quickly coming to an end, the government spending fight will ramp up as the House of Representatives continues its response to the controversial Planned Parenthood videos which were released this summer. As early as Thursday, September 17, the House is expected to vote … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Committee on Energy and Commerce to Mark Up Health Legislation The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has announced that it will hold a markup on Tuesday, July 28. Several health bills are on the agenda: H.R. 1344, the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2015, which reauthorizes a program for … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Republicans Take Aim At Affordable Care Act On Tuesday, February 3, the House of Representatives will consider H.R. 596, a bill to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, and for other purposes. The bill, introduced by … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity On Monday, July 28, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health will hold a markup to consider two bills: H.R. ____, a bill to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for recommendations for the development and use of clinical data registries for the improvement of patient … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity On Wednesday, July 23, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will meet to consider several health related bills, including: S. 315, Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance, Research and Education (MD-CARE) Amendments of 2013; S. 2154, Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2014; S. 531, Physical Activity … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity This Week’s PPACA Vote House leadership has scheduled a vote next week to ban federal subsidies from being used for abortion coverage. H.R. 7, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), is scheduled for floor consideration on Wednesday January 29, and would prohibit any federal funds from … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Leadership is expected to bring up an Affordable Care Act (ACA) bill next week that would address security issues with the health insurance exchanges and enhance protection of personal information entered on the healthcare.gov website. The measure will be the first of a number of proposals in 2014 addressing health reform focusing … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity SGR Update The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a one-page memo that lowered the cost for repealing Medicare’s physician payment formula, reporting that a ten-year repeal would cost about $23 billion less than a previous estimate this year. According to the CBO, the cost of repealing the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula would … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity The House and Senate will continue to hold oversight and investigation hearings focused on the problems with HealthCare.gov. This week’s hearings follow the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) announcement that 106,185 individuals have selected a health care insurance plan through the exchanges and President Obama’s announcement that HHS will use its … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Farm Bill Conference: Priority Issues At-A-Glance On October 30, the 41 House and Senate farm bill conferees convened at a public meeting to formally kick-off negotiations, although informal talks began a few months ago between agriculture leadership’s staff. Despite many conferees cautioning against pre-maturely drawing lines on issues, it was clear what issues … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity This week the Senate will take its turn to question the Administration about the bumpy healthcare.gov rollout, with two hearings on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance exchanges. Senate Democrats’ concerns about the proposed fixes to the website continue to mount, as well as questions about the Administration’s promise that those who … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Following a bad week for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) roll-out, with criticism of the deficiencies from Republicans and Democrats alike, this week will bring renewed calls for legislative action to delay implementation. Provisions that would extend the open enrollment period and a delayed tax enforcement of the individual mandate are getting the … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY Federal Government Shutdown Continues As the federal government enters the second week of a shutdown, there has been no progress to end the stalemate between Democrats and Republicans, and it appears more and more likely a resolution of the shutdown and the necessary increase of the nation’s borrowing authority will converge on October … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Health reform provisions continue to impede resolution of the continuing resolution (CR) and an end to the government shutdown. With support from the Administration, Senate Democrats insist they will only consider a clean CR without Affordable Care Act (ACA) defunding or delay provisions. The Senate has also refused to take up a bill … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY Last Week’s Activity on FY 2014 Appropriations With a party-line vote, on Friday, September 27, the Senate amended the FY 2014 Continuing Resolution (CR) (H. J. Res. 59) as it was approved by the House on September 20, to restore funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152) and shorten … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Centerstage: Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains in the spotlight this week with Tuesday, October 1 marking a major deadline as open enrollment in the health insurance exchanges officially begins. ACA defund and delay provisions, however, remain a key issue in the ping-pong over the continuing resolution (CR). The Senate … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Lawmakers Consider Tax Provisions in Debt Ceiling and Government Funding Debates With both the debt ceiling and government funding deadlines coming quickly, House Republicans and some House Democrats have joined together to attach a repeal of the 2.3 percent medical device tax to the government funding legislation. (Separately, and almost on a party-line … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY FY 2014 Appropriations On Friday, September 20, the House approved an amended short-term FY 2014 Continuing Resolution (CR) (H.J. Res. 59) that would fund the federal government at current levels through December 15, while eliminating all funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (P.L. 111-148, P.L. 111-152). The 230-189 House vote fell along … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity CR Wrangling The House approved H. J. Res. 59 last week, a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 15 at sequester funding levels. As expected, the resolution includes a provision that would defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Senate will take up the CR this week, and is expected … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY FY 2014 Appropriations After conservative Republicans rejected the short-term FY 2014 Continuing Resolution (H. J. Res. 59) introduced by House Republican leaders last week, the House must go back to square one this week and come up with another near-term funding solution, as a government shutdown looms in two weeks. House conservatives rejected … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity The House will resume discussions this week about how to move a Continuing Resolution (CR) while appeasing conservative Republican members looking to attach a provision to block funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Last week, a scheduled vote on the CR was cancelled when the conference rejected a plan that would allow … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Premium Subsidy Bill House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will continue to drive legislation to undermine elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and advance “patient-centered systems” when Congress returns to session. The strategy will continue to unfold this fall and kicks off with the House taking up H.R. 2775 this week, a … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity This Week’s Hearings: Tuesday, July 30: The Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing on “Containing Health Care Costs: Recent Progress and Remaining Challenges.” Wednesday, July 31: The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will mark up H.R. 2810, the sustainable growth rate and Medicare payment for physicians reform bill. Wednesday, July 31: … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Energy and Commerce and SGR Reform Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released updated draft legislation that addresses physician payments under Medicare and reforms the sustainable growth rate. While Republicans Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Michael Burgess (R-TX) have been active in the drafting … Continue Reading
