With Congress headed into a two-week break, it will be the biggest opportunity for voters to meet their member since last year’s election. Go visit your Member of Congress at the next town hall! Families USA has a calendar that can tell you when your Member of Congress is back home and ready to hear
With some Congressional Republicans suggesting that a repeal of the ACA is still front and center it will not likely happen when the Congress returns after the spring break. With the CR funding due for resolution within days of reconvening, a full FY 2018 budget release in Mid-May, and a desire to do a tax
On Friday afternoon President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) pulled the American Health Care Act from a floor to prevent a vote that would have ended in defeat. The loss came after a tumultuous week of changes to the bill just a few days earlier. Essentially Ryan could not come up with a
The President’s proposed budget for discretionary spending for 2018 landed with a crash as it includes dramatic cuts across agencies and departments as a way to pay for increases to the Pentagon. The proposal was released on Thursday, March16 and applies to the discretionary portion of federal spending with the rest to be published with
On Tuesday, March 14, CWLA sent a letter to Capitol Hill opposing the American Health Care Act. Citing the new Congressional Budget Office analysis, in the letter, CWLA President and CEO Chris James-Brown points out the importance of expanded mental health and substance abuse services saying, “The availability of health care coverage through the Affordable
Late Monday, March 13, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its required analysis of the American Health Care Act concluding that it would both reduce the number of people with health insurance while cutting health care costs to the federal government. The analysis determined that 14 million people would become uninsured next year (2018), 21
The House Ways and Means Committee followed by the House Commerce and Energy Committee moved their parts of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) health plan on Thursday, March 9. The Ways and Means Committee gave final approval to their part of the bill on Thursday morning around 2:00 AM. Later that early afternoon the Energy and
The House health care plan confronts what are two overarching Medicaid issues but the second one may be the most significant. The first issue is how to deal with the Medicaid expansion enacted under the ACA. Thirty-one states have expanded their Medicaid programs to all adults up to 138 percent of poverty. The second issue
On Thursday, March 9, more than 80 members of Congress signed onto a letter to denounce a suggestion by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that the Department might look at foster care placements as an enforcement tool regarding immigration. At a press conference, led by Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA), several members of Congress addressed reporters
The Trump Administration will release its “skinny budget” this week on either March 15 or March 16. It is referred to as a skinny budget because it will include only “top-line” figures meaning possibly only larger agency and department budgets will be listed without the program specifics. This approach is somewhat traditional for other first