Today on the Hill: Defense Approps and Labor Resolutions as Congress Awaits New ACA Repeal and Replace Draft

The House only has a pro forma session scheduled today, but returns tomorrow to a defense appropriations bill (H.R. 1301) that would fund the Pentagon for the remainder of the fiscal 2017 year at $583.7 billion in annualized defense spending. The bill – which will likely be considered without amendments – is the result of negotiations dating to the last Congress. With an Apr. 28 funding deadline looming for the entire government, watch to see if Democrats attempt to hold up the defense bill in order to pressure Republicans to act on omnibus legislation that would fund the rest of the government. Republican leaders are currently crafting their spending strategy, which may include multiple “minibus” appropriations measures to fund the various agencies and departments that make up the federal government. Should that strategy fail, it remains possible that lawmakers will pass a final stopgap bill to maintain fiscal 2016 levels of spending for the remainder of the 2017 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The House will also vote on a trio of tort reform bills designed to limit class action lawsuits and filings. The three measures would: (1) require federal courts to impose penalties on parties that file frivolous claims and repeal a safe-harbor provision that allows such parties to avoid penalties if they withdraw the suit (H.R. 720); (2) allow class action lawsuits to move forward only if all potential members in a class action have suffered similar injuries (H.R. 985); and (3) require additional in-state plaintiffs to show a plausible case in order to keep the matter in state courts (H.R. 725).  

On the committee level, Republican lawmakers are hoping to begin marking up the replacement bills for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Chris Collins (R-NY), members of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, have said they expect the sub-panel to hold a markup this week. The House Ways and Means Committee will also eventually need to mark up the pieces of the bill that fall under its jurisdiction.

After piling through Cabinet confirmations last week, the Senate will vote today on a House-passed disapproval resolution (H.J. Res. 37) that would rescind a joint rule published by the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) requiring federal contractors to keep detailed information on their past labor violations. Businesses affected by the rule argue that it serves as a “blacklist” that violates their due process rights – an argument that led to a federal court’s decision to block the rule last October. Per the provisions of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the measure only needs to be passed by a simple majority in the upper chamber to be advanced to the president’s desk.