Washington Update - January 19
With only days remaining before much of government funding lapses on January 30, the Senate last week cleared a bipartisan appropriations package for President Donald Trump’s signature. The package includes the Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, and Interior annual appropriations bills. The House approved a new bipartisan package of the Financial Services and State Department appropriations last week that Senators hope to take up when they return from recess on January 26.
This week, Representatives hope to debate the remaining and most partisan spending bills – Defense, Labor-HHS, Transportation, HUD, and Homeland Security – a task complicated by Republicans frequently losing control of the House floor.
Senators are unlikely to consider the House-passed legislation to extend health insurance subsidies, because bipartisan Senate negotiations have been derailed by President Trump introducing a health care plan that does not include the subsidies. Instead, the President’s proposal would expand existing law on hospital and provider price transparency, codify “Most Favored Nation” agreements with drugmakers, and fund health savings accounts for low-income people.
The Trump Plan is not a comprehensive health reform proposal, but an effort to muddy the waters and give candidates something to say on an issue that has long been a political liability for Republicans. With the expiration of health insurance subsidies hurting real people’s pocketbooks and Republicans taking the blame, it is a tactic unlikely to help their campaigns in the November elections.
Public and private polls marking the end of President Trump’s first year of his second term suggests help is needed. His approval ratings hover around 40 percent, lower among independents. The only issue he wins majority approval on is border security, with the cost of living, healthcare and immigration enforcement ratings near new lows. The President’s overreach on immigration escalated last week with the launch of criminal investigations of Minnesota’s governor and Minneapolis’ mayor for criticizing his aggressive enforcement surge.
