House Republicans next week are scheduled to unveil a major piece of their proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare at a tentatively scheduled mark up of the legislation in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The much-anticipated debate over healthcare legislation will take place while lawmakers hold House votes on lawsuit reform measures and a critical defense spending bill needed to fund the military for the remainder of the year.
The House hopes to send a healthcare bill to the Senate in the coming weeks, but internal disagreement over major elements of the plan, including how to structure tax credits for insurance purchases and the fate of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, could slow things down.
“Now that we are going to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the question is, what do you do with those states that expanded Medicaid?” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a senior member on the Energy and Commerce, said, following a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans on the bill. “There’s a debate in the conference.”
In the Senate, lawmakers will vote on two House-passed bills that roll back Obama-era regulations and will likely move later in the week to the nomination of Seema Verma, President Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
With the effort to repeal health care moving ahead, Senate Republicans are eager to confirm Verma, who as head of CMS is expected to play a major role in repealing and replacing Obamacare. The Senate Finance Committee approved Verma last week on a party-line vote and she is expected to easily win the simple majority needed by the full Senate.
Back in the House, lawmakers will push ahead with spending bills for the current fiscal year, beginning with a $578 billion measure to fund defense. The bill includes a $5.2 billion increase in spending over 2016 but an additional supplemental defense spending measure is expected in the coming weeks.
The Republican-led Congress is likely to end up passing another stop-gap measure to keep much of the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, although lawmakers will attempt to move additional bills independently, GOP leaders said last week.
The House will also vote on a trio of lawsuit reform bills.
The first, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, would reform class action lawsuits to reduce frivolous cases and maximize awards to plaintiffs by limiting lawyers fees.
The House will also vote on a bill that would establish uniform standards that to make it harder for plaintiffs in a court case to fraudulently name a business or individual as a defendant in a lawsuit. A third bill, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, would require mandatory sanctions against lawyers for frivolous lawsuits and would require the lawyers who file the suits to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs of the defendants.
The American Bar Association does not support the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. The association argued in a letter of opposition that mandatory sanctions over frivolous lawsuits were eliminated “after experience revealed its unintended, adverse consequences.”
