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Category: 115th Congress

House Republican Leadership Proposes Changes to Healthcare Legislation

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Last evening, the Republican leadership in the House proposed a number of changes to the committee-passed healthcare legislation. The changes have been offered as proposed amendments (see here) and will still need to be formally adopted to become part of the official legislative package.

The proposed changes were offered to garner enough support from among the House Republicans still unsupportive of the bill to ensure its passage. President Trump met with the entire House Republicans earlier today to urge that they support the bill.

Among the proposed changes are:

• Allowing states to place work requirements on Medicaid recipients
• Allowing states to turn Medicaid into a block grant
• Repealing a number of taxes created by Obamacare a year earlier than currently planned
• Changing Medicaid reimbursement rates for states
• Delaying the “Cadillac tax” on insurance benefits from 2025 to 2026
• Instructing the Senate to offer bigger tax credits for those who are 50 to 64 to offset premium increases

It remains to be seen whether these changes will win over enough of the members who are still either undecided or opposed to the measure to gain passage.

FBI: No Wiretaps

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During a public hearing that lasted most of the day before the House Intelligence Committee, FBI Director James Comey stated publicly neither the FBI nor the broader Justice Department have any evidence to confirm the Trump White House allegation that Trump was wiretapped. At the same hearing, Comey also publicly acknowledged that the FBI has an investigation under way to examine, among other things, possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

A Big Week in Congress

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The first day of Spring today is the start of a big week in Congress. Activities of interest this week include, but are not limited to:

• The confirmation hearing for United States Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch before the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to start today, with opening statements. Members of the committee will have an opportunity to ask questions of Judge Gorsuch Tuesday and Wednesday.

• The House Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on a host of issues related to Russian involvement in the November presidential election as well as those around claims of wire-tapping and other issues. The head of the FBI James Comey and the director of the National Security Agency Michael Rogers are slated to testify at the hearing.

• Currently slated for Thursday, the full House is expected to vote on the American Health Care Act, the legislation aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Office of Federal Relations will provide additional updates.

Senate Repeals Teacher Education Regulations

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Employing the same method used by the House in February, the Senate rolled back on Wednesday the regulations issued by the Education Department in the last days of the Obama Administration aimed at teacher education and training programs at institutions of higher education.

Trump Aims to Release FY18 Budget Outline in Mid-March

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The Trump Administration is aiming to release its FY 2018 budget outline on March 14, an unnamed White House official told CQ over the weekend. The budget outline is not expected to be a comprehensive budget, but instead a “skinny” skeleton of what the Administration intends the full budget to look like. Some are expressing doubt that the Administration could make this soft deadline, given the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, was confirmed and sworn in just last week.