Congressional Schedule: The House and Senate plan to hold pro forma sessions today to open the second session of the 114th Congress. The House is scheduled to be in session for legislative business Tuesday-Friday, while the Senate will be in recess the rest of the week.
Budget Reconciliation: House leaders are preparing this week to send budget reconciliation legislation to the President that would eliminate key provisions of the Affordable Care Act and withhold federal funds from Planned Parenthood. Republican leaders have elected to use the reconciliation process as a way to force President Obama to veto the bill, since reconciliation means the bill will make it to the president’s desk without being subject to a Democratic filibuster. The reconciliation bill, H.R. 3762, passed in the House last October and was later amended in the Senate. The House will now vote on the revised Senate version, which eliminates the penalties in the Affordable Care Act for individuals who don’t purchase medical insurance and for companies with more than 50 workers that fail to provide health-care coverage. The Senate version also includes language to repeal additional taxes and financing mechanisms from the 2010 healthcare law.
The House vote scheduled for Wednesday on the reconciliation measure will be largely symbolic, as there aren’t enough votes to override Obama’s promised veto. To learn more about the budget reconciliation process, please see the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ synopsis.
Child Nutrition Reauthorization: The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, chaired by Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS), plans to mark up bipartisan Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation early in 2016, but the markup has not been officially scheduled as of yet.