DE Under 3: OFCCP’s Congressional Budget Justification Is Chock-Full of Insights Into the Agency’s Plans & Past Performance
In Washington - With no deal between Democrats and the Trump Administration in sight, It’s appearing more likely that Congress might package additional coronavirus relief with the 12 must-pass appropriations bills before...more
COMPREHENSIVE DRUG BILL STALLS WHILE HOUSE PUSHES SMALLER MEASURES - House Democrats are planning to take up more narrow bills addressing prescription drug costs while their broad legislation is delayed as the...more
This week in Washington: House to hold a markup of five healthcare bills, as well as a hearing to seek clarity on the Trump administration's health care policy choices; Senate to discuss solutions to the substance misuse...more
This week in Washington: Senate to hold hearings on the enforcement of antitrust laws and elder justice, while the House plans to hold a member day hearing and examine the Social Security 2100 Act....more
This week, the House is scheduled to vote on a repeal of the Cadillac tax, which is a forty percent tax on high-cost health plans. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that repealing the tax would cost an estimated...more
It takes more than a lot of huffing and puffing to blow down the ever-rising high costs of prescription drugs, the Trump administration has found. Two defeats happened last week: officials were forced to pull a plan to curb...more
The summer season has arrived in Washington and things are heating up in the halls of Congress. A number of high priority legislative proposals ranging from health care to appropriations to patent reform to defense...more
This week in Washington: House to hold hearings on PFAS contamination and exposure, the maternal mortality crisis and single-payer issues....more
Outlook for This Week in the Nation's Capital - Congress: Congress returns from a two week long recess, and the Majority Leader Hoyer has already announced that the House will vote on at least three of Democrats’ top...more
Outlook for This Week in the Nation's Capital - Congress Struggles to Find the “End Game” for the 115th Congress and FY19 Appropriations: After a week of relative calm and political truces in the Capitol as the nation...more
Highlights this week include a lame duck update on year-end health bills and tax provisions; lawmakers reacting to a federal judge ruling the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional; Sen. Hatch seeks to update Hatch-Waxman;...more
Congress - Senate - Senate Vote Fails to Block Trump Administration’s Short-Term Health Plans - On Oct. 10, the Senate failed to block the Trump administration’s expansion of short-term insurance plans. The...more
As part of the GOP tax bill passed in December 2017, Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate penalty, effective January 1, 2019. The individual mandate requires adults to maintain health coverage...more
Outlook for This Week in the Nation's Capital - Recess Week. Both the House and Senate are in recess this week. Opioid Legislation. Majority Leader McCarthy has said that the House is planning to consider its expansive...more
A degree of uncertainty hangs over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) following the November 2017 resignation of its first director, Richard Cordray. On his last day in office, Cordray appointed his chief of...more
The December 2017 Tax Reform Bill and the Repeal of the ACA’s Individual Mandate - The tax reform bill signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017, notably includes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s...more
One Shutdown Averted, Countdown Begins Again: With the government funded through December 22, House and Senate leadership are shifting their focus on how to structure a long-term spending deal that would include an increase...more
After dominating the agenda for most of 2017, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seemed to take a backseat at first as Republicans shifted their focus to enacting tax legislation. The initial momentum behind the bipartisan...more
House Narrowly Passes 2018 Budget Resolution: The House passed the Senate’s version of the budget resolution by a vote of 216-212 allowing Republicans to begin their work on tax reform. The budget resolution calls for...more
Even as Senators continue to consider “Graham-Cassidy,” the latest Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal legislation, insurance markets are already reacting to uncertainty and instability brought about by persistent GOP efforts to...more
Welcome back everybody. The House is out this week and the Senate is out Thursday and Friday with a lot to sort out before they skip town. Graham-Cassidy has people on edge because, if nothing else, it is still alive. The...more
Following the dramatic conclusion of the failed vote on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it appears the Senate will pivot to other issues, namely the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). However, the...more
The U.S. Senate’s efforts to craft a health care reform bill that would fulfill the promise of dismantling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been plagued by partisanship, secrecy, disagreement and...more
Welcome back everybody. The absence of Senator John McCain (AZ) – who is recovering at home from a craniotomy – has caused Senate Republicans to delay consideration of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) previously...more
Republicans in the U.S. Senate will spend a long Fourth of July break trying to figure if they can repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, with their Better Care Reconciliation Act, aka Trumpcare. Their...more