Legislative Activity Senate Finance to Discuss CHRONIC Care Act On Tuesday, May 16, the Senate Committee on Finance will hold a hearing titled “Examining Bipartisan Medicare Policies that Improve Care for Patients with Chronic Conditions.” The Committee will discuss S. 870, Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017, … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Verma Visits Senate Finance With Secretary Price now in place at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), it is Seema Verma’s turn to experience the Senate confirmation process as the nominee for Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). On Thursday, February 16, Verma will appear before the … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate to Vote on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Conference Report Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the Senate is expected to vote on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (S. 524) conference report this week. The bipartisan legislation authorizes grant programs; creates a task force on pain management; expands … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Passes Highway Funding Bill, Senate Prepares to Vote on Legislation Last week, the House voted 367-55 to pass H.R. 5021, the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014. The bill would patch and reauthorize the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) through May 2015 by using transfers from the General Fund and the Leaking Underground Storage … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Finance Committee Aims to Markup Highway Funding Bill While not yet noticed, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to markup a short-term highway funding bill before the week-long July 4 holiday recess; however, it is possible that the markup will slip until Congress returns the week of July 7. While disagreements remain … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Tax Extenders Bill Stalls in Senate, Timing Now Unclear On May 15, the Senate was unable to garner the 60 votes needed to end debate on tax extenders legislation. The bill, which would provide a two-year extension for certain tax extenders that expired on January 1, stalled as a result of Republican concerns … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate to Take Up Temporary Tax Extenders Package; House Takes Different Approach During the week of May 12, the Senate is expected to take up the EXPIRE Act (S. 2260), which provides a two-year extension for certain tax extenders, which expired on January 1. The Senate’s approach for dealing with tax extenders differs … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Ways and Means Committee to Hold First Hearing on Tax Extenders; Finance Committee Passes Tax Extenders Bill On Tuesday, April 8, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold its first hearing on tax extenders to consider those expired provisions that should be made permanent or provided long-term extensions. This will likely be … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Wyden, Camp to Take Next Steps on Tax Extenders On March 24, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) sent a memo to his Committee members regarding next steps on tax reform. In the memo, Chairman Camp suggests that the Committee will: (1) continue its efforts to educate Members and stakeholders; … Continue Reading
LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY House Tax Overhaul House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) has told GOP panel members he will release a “comprehensive discussion draft” this week of a tax code rewrite. While getting a major change in tax law this year is widely considered to be a long shot, this marks a turning … Continue Reading
Tax Legislative Activity Congressman Says Tax Extenders Could be Handled this Spring Representative Richard Neal (D-MA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, stated that if comprehensive reform stalls, the committee could take up tax extenders “sometime around February or March.” Tax extenders are provisions that are due to expire at the end … Continue Reading
Tax Legislative Activity Baucus Releases Final Proposal on Cost Recovery and Accounting On Thursday, November 21, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) issued his final release in a series of staff discussion drafts to reform the nation’s tax code, this one on cost recovery and accounting. Proposal Summary In making the case for reforming … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Comprehensive Tax Reform to be Delayed House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) acknowledged last week that plans to overhaul the nation’s tax code may not make it out of committee this year. Although Chairman Camp remained hopeful, he pointed to the government shutdown as slowing momentum and demurred when asked whether … Continue Reading
Tax Legislative Activity Senate Finance Chairman Announces Drafts to be in Legislative Language Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) announced last week that tax reform discussion drafts to be released in the coming weeks will be written in legislative language. This suggests that the drafts will be detailed, allowing for a full public preview … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Tax Writing Committee Continues Meetings on Reform The Senate Finance Committee has continued its series of closed-door Committee meetings on tax reform, recently issuing its tenth and final option paper on non-income tax issues and related reforms. A list of all the option papers published is available here. Senate Finance Committee Chairman … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Tax Writing Committee Continues Meetings on Reform The Senate Finance Committee has continued its series of closed-door committee meetings on tax reform, recently issuing an options paper addressing charitable and tax-exempt organizations. The most recent paper is available here. The Committee’s paper on charitable and tax-exempt organizations was the ninth topic covered … Continue Reading
Executive and Legislative Branch Activity Syria During last week’s Congressional recess, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) slipped over the Turkish border into Syria to meet with the leaders of the Free Syrian Army. Syrian opposition leaders reportedly called on the United States to increase its support by providing heavy weapons, instituting a no-fly zone and employing … Continue Reading
