Congress has left for the July 4 recess, and will return to Washington the week of July 10. Awaiting lawmakers is a daunting agenda of major policy initiatives and must-pass items, with a limited calendar in which to pass them. Of course, chief among those items is the stalled effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as Republican leaders in the Senate work feverishly to craft a package that will be able to pass the upper chamber before the August recess. President Trump again weighed in on the effort in a statement on Twitter this morning, saying that if the current package fails, Congress should “immediately REPEAL and then REPLACE at a later date!” While Republicans had originally considered that option in February when their health care initiative first started, it is unlikely that moderates will go along with a new plan to repeal that would strip coverage and place a great deal of uncertainty in insurance markets. It remains far more probable that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will return from the July 4 recess with a package that includes a number of the legislative tweaks and make a last-ditch effort to pass the existing legislation.
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