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House Freedom Caucus Member Pledges Support For Health Care

Members of the House Freedom Caucus this week have agreed to support a health care plan, after opposing the American Health Care Act (AHCA) proposed by Speaker Paul Ryan and supported by the President. Although the date for a vote on a revised health care package to replace Obamacare is uncertain, it could be brought to the House floor in the next couple weeks. Georgia Congressman Jody Hice is a Freedom Caucus Member who now supports the new version of the health care bill.
“The key issue is to drive down premium costs, which the previous bill –four weeks ago–did not do. And so with what we have now, I’ve come on board because of the changes that have been made which drastically impact premium costs,” explains Hice who represents Georgia’s Tenth District, which extends eastward from the Atlanta suburbs.
“The previous bill had some good things…employer mandate…individual mandate. That’s good, but it left untouched insurance company mandates. So, an insurance company did not have the ability to offer a variety of plans. They had to stick with the Gold, Premium, that type of thing. It was not free market-based. And there’s no way to drive down the cost of premiums if the government is dictating what the plan has to be. The MacArthur Amendment helped in that regard,” says Hice.
Hice noted that some Members are still undecided, but he appeared optimistic about the bill’s chances for approval.
Turning the subject of President Trump’s First 100 Days, Hice offered high praise for the nascent Administration.
“I rate him doing an outstanding job. Again, at the end of the day, no President is ultimately going to be defined by a hundred days. He’ll be defined by the duration of his presidency. But within the First Hundred Days, we’ve got what…eleven Congressional Review Acts–by far the most in the history of our nation, which reviews have done away with multiple regulations from the previous administration.
“And the most in any other administration had been one. So those have gone through the House, through the Senate and signed by the President. We have a new Supreme Court Justice. We have Executive Orders ranging from Keystone to Waters of the US. We have our military presence in the world, seen from Syria and other things that America is back on the front line. We have our immigration declining seventy percent the first Hundred Days…and I give him an A+,” says Hice.

No vote on healthcare bill this week in U.S. House

U.S. House leaders have decided against holding a vote on a reworked healthcare system overhaul this week after failing to find the necessary support, congressional aides said on Thursday.
White House officials had urged a floor vote on the legislation before President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office on Saturday, hoping to follow through on a campaign promise to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Advocates had hoped to raise enough support for the measure after a group of hard-line Republican conservatives endorsed an amended version on Wednesday.
But by Thursday evening Republican leaders still had not collected enough votes from moderate Republicans whose backing was also needed for passage in the House, given united Democratic opposition.
“We won’t vote this week,” said one House Republican aide, who asked not to be named. Next week was not ruled out, another indicated. “We’ll call a vote when we have the votes.”
Representative Pete Sessions, a senior House Republican, also left the door open to a vote next week.
Possibly referring to Trump, Sessions said that a lot of people had tried to rush the legislation to the floor, but House Republican leaders want to “allow the time to do it right.
“I said it will find its time and I am satisfied we are moving at a pace, keeping people engaged,” he said at a late night session of the House Rules Committee he chairs.
The Republican healthcare bill would replace Obamacare’s income-based tax credit with an age-based credit, roll back an expansion of the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor and repeal most Obamacare taxes.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated 24 million fewer people would have insurance than under the original version.
House leaders brought the bill to the floor last month after Trump demanded a vote, but yanked it after a rebellion by Republican moderates and the party’s most conservative lawmakers, in a major setback for Trump.
An amendment drafted by Representative Tom MacArthur won over conservatives in the hardline Freedom Caucus this week, reviving some hopes that the bill could still pass.
The amendment would allow states to seek waivers from some provisions. Among these are one mandating that insurers charge those with pre-existing conditions the same as healthy consumers, and that insurers cover so-called essential health benefits, such as maternity care.
But a number of centrist Republicans still opposed the measure.
“Protections for those with pre-existing conditions without contingency, and affordable access to coverage for every American, remain my priorities for advancing healthcare reform, and this bill does not satisfy those benchmarks for me,” Representative Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania said in a statement posted on social network Twitter on Thursday.
Some outside groups like the American Medical Association weighed in against the legislation, saying it would cost millions their health care coverage. The bill’s future is further clouded in the Senate.

Russia’s Lavrov says ready to cooperate with U.S. on Syria: agencies

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Moscow is ready to cooperate with the United States on settling the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported.
Russian authorities reiterate periodically that they stand ready to renew cooperation with Washington on Syria and, more globally, on fighting terrorism.
Relations between the two countries, however, are seen reaching another low after U.S. fired missiles at Syria to punish Moscow’s ally for its suspected use of poison gas earlier in April. Russia condemned the U.S. action.
Lavrov’s deputy Mikhail Bogdanov also said on Saturday that Russian authorities hope that Syrian armed opposition will take part in Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan’s Astana on May 3-4, Interfax reported.

EPA says website undergoing makeover to match Trump, Pruitt views

The website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA.gov, is getting a makeover to reflect the views of President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the agency said on Friday.
“As EPA renews its commitment to human health and clean air, land and water, our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency,” it said in a statement.
Trump, a climate change doubter, campaigned on a pledge to boost the U.S. oil and gas drilling and coal mining industries by slashing regulation. He also promised to pull Washington out of a global pact to fight climate change.
The first page to be updated is one that reflects Trump’s executive order on energy independence, which calls for a review of the Clean Power Plan put into place by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, the statement said.
“Language associated with the Clean Power Plan, written by the last administration, is out of date,” it said. “Similarly, content related to climate and regulation is also being reviewed.”
The Clean Power Plan aimed to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electrical power generation over 25 years, focusing on reductions from coal-burning power plants and increasing the use of renewable energy and energy conservation.
“We want to eliminate confusion by removing outdated language first and making room to discuss how we’re protecting the environment and human health by partnering with states and working within the law,” J.P. Freire, associate administrator for public affairs at the agency, said in the statement.
The website changes will comply with agency ethics and legal guidance, including proper archiving, so a snapshot of the Obama administration’s website would remain available from the main page, the statement said.
In January, EPA sources told Reuters that administration officials had asked the agency to take down the climate change page on its website, and that EPA staff had pushed back in an effort to convince the administration to preserve it. [L1N1FF00N]
The page includes links to scientific research, emissions data from industrial plants and a multi-agency report that describes trends related to the causes and effects of climate change.
Pruitt led 14 lawsuits against the agency when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general. Last month he said he was not convinced that carbon dioxide from human activity is the main driver of climate change, a position widely embraced by scientists.