Last week was a historic week for the U.S. Supreme Court and on Thursday June 25, the Supreme Court issued one of its most anticipated decisions of the term with a 6 to 3 rejection of the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The Court in King V Burwell rejected the challenge by the
Last week both houses moved on an appropriations bill for the departments of HHS, Education and Labor. The House Appropriations Committee moved the bill that had been approved by the Subcommittee a week earlier while in the Senate the Subcommittee and then the full Committee acted on their version of a bill on Tuesday
A bill that would restore the refundability of the adoption tax credit is gaining bipartisan and bicameral support. The tax credit seeks to assist families that adopt. It was refundable for a brief period in 2010 and 2011 and in making it refundable the credit is a much greater assistance to families that adopt from
It appears now that a tentative date for debate on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secretary Education Act, S 1177 (ESEA/No Child Left behind Act) will be the week of July 7. The Senate is off this week for the July 4th break but key senators from the HELP Committee have been waiting to
A bipartisan bill that would create a commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, S. 991 was reported out of a Senate Committee last week. The bill, sponsored by Senator Patty Murray (DWA) is similar to a House bill, HR 1831, sponsored by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WS). Generally the commission would evaluate the use of data on federal
With time running out on this session’s Supreme Court term, Republican senators are discussing their options on how to react to a possible court ruling that would cut-off potentially 6.4 million people from their health insurance tax credits. At the same time the Congressional Budget Office said in an updated review that repeal of the
Operating under budget caps and an allocation $3 billion below 2014 funding, on Wednesday, June 17 the House Appropriations Subcommittee approved a funding bill for 2016. The bill is still in draft form until the full report is prepared for full committee deliberation. The House draft avoids some of the controversial cuts of the recent
On Friday, June 19, 2015, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced a key bipartisan measure, the Educational Stability of Foster Youth Act. The bill is an attempt to align federal education law with was enacted under child welfare law, Title IV-E in 2008. The bill would: Ensure that children can
The House Appropriations Subcommittee will take up a Labor-HHS appropriations bill for FY 2016 on Wednesday. Any real debate is likely to be delayed for the full committee later in the week or month. As of last week the House had sent six appropriations bills to the Senate: Commerce-State-Justice (HR 2578), Energy and Water (HR
On Wednesday, June 10, the House Ways and Means Committee held what was to be the Committee’s annual review of the Administration’s proposed changes for HHS (including proposals addressing child welfare) but instead the event may be a precursor for a coming fight over health care reform. With the Supreme Court in the last weeks