The Week in Review
The House and Senate were in recess last week.
The Week Ahead
Both chambers of Congress are in recess until Tuesday, September 8. When the Senate reconvenes, members are set to immediately consider a measure which would disapprove of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. For a full rundown on the major legislative issues due to be considered after the summer break, please refer to TRP’s Fall Legislative Outlook.
Month: August 2015
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
The House and Senate were in recess last week.
The Week Ahead
Both chambers of Congress are in recess until Tuesday, September 8. When the Senate reconvenes, members are set to immediately consider a measure which would disapprove of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. For a full rundown on the major legislative issues due to be considered after the summer break, please refer to TRP’s Fall Legislative Outlook.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
The House and Senate were in recess last week.
The Week Ahead
Both chambers of Congress are in recess until Tuesday, September 8. When the Senate reconvenes, members are set to immediately consider a measure which would disapprove of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. For a full rundown on the major legislative issues due to be considered after the summer break, please refer to TRP’s Fall Legislative Outlook.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
August recess arrived last week in Washington, with the Senate pushing off votes on cybersecurity and the Iran deal until lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on September 8. Under a unanimous consent agreement reached on Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats agreed to postpone debate on a cybersecurity measure (S. 754) that would give liability protection to companies that voluntarily share cyber threat information with intelligence agencies and law enforcement. Both sides agreed to debate the bill—plus 10 Republican and 11 Democratic amendments—after the August recess. The Senate will be able to proceed to consideration without needing to set up a cloture vote.
Health Policy Report
The Week in Review
Two high-profile issues dominated discussion in Congress last week, namely a conclusion to the highway funding debate—for now—and the ongoing controversy over the actions of Planned Parenthood. With the highway funding deadline looming, the Senate and House reached a short-term agreement to keep money flowing for highway construction until October 29, 2015. However, both chambers remain committed to their competing proposals for a long-term fix; the Senate prefers a six-year measure that includes three years of various offsets and a renewal of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), while the House wants a measure that prevents the Ex-Im bank from reopening and relies heavily on repatriation revenue from businesses operating overseas. Finding a long-term compromise will be near the top of the Congressional agenda when they return from the August recess.
Financial Services Report
Our Take
Last week Treasury Secretary Lew sent a letter to Congress letting them know that the Treasury’s extraordinary measures used to stave off default would likely expire around the end of October all but ensuring that we will once again see a conflation of the congressional effort to resolve the debt limit tied into the constitutional obligation of Congress to fund our government. With both parties appearing to have drawn their lines in the sand over the funding of Planned Parenthood, itself an issued that will be easily incorporated into the large politics of the 2016 Presidential race, the combination of these issues, plus Highway funding, international taxation, and the renewal of the Export-Import charter clearly mean that Congress will have a lot on its plate come the fall.