Last week, by a vote of 227-198, the House adopted a budget resolution aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  The budget document (S Con Res 3)  includes instructions for the budget reconciliation process, which would allow Republicans to avoid a filibuster in the Senate and repeal parts of the health care law with a simple 51-vote majority in that chamber.

It should be noted that budget reconciliation is a process, and will take some time— the instructions included in S Con Res 3 require the relevant committees in both chambers to create instructions telling the budget committee what repeal should look like.  Once repeal legislation is drafted, both houses can pass it with a simple majority, and then it would go to President Trump for signature.  In addition, budget reconciliation only allows Congress to repeal parts of the law – more specifically, the parts that deal with how much the government spends or taxes people.  So there are still some legislative hurdles for a full repeal to overcome.

Senate confirmation hearings continued this week, with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) appearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee for a courtesy hearing;  the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction for Dr. Price’s confirmation.  During his HELP hearing, Dr. Price faced question regarding information that came out earlier this week that last year Dr. Price purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company.

In addition, an article published this week sheds more light on incoming-President Trump’s plans for government spending and a fiscal year 2018 budget proposal to Congress:

• A possible “skinny budget” with the main priorities and summary tables expected within 45 days of inauguration (by March 6th).
• A full budget expected to be released toward the end of the first 100 days in office (mid- to late April).
• The budget is reportedly being informed largely by past blueprints that would reduce federal spending by $8.6 trillion to $10.5 trillion over the next ten years.