Congress will recess without action on healthcare, looks to move on to tax reform in September

As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the Senate last week “it’s time to move on,” the Senate has now turned to a series of judicial nominations to fill out the balance of their summer schedule in the absence of agreement on healthcare reform. The Senate is expected to recess on Friday, joining the House a week into their five week long summer recess.

Although there is some talk about another attempt at some manner of healthcare reform - a bipartisan Senate Health Education and Labor Committee hearing is being organized for September , and a bipartisan group of House members is working on a proposal to shore up the insurance exchanges - at this point the political will to take another run at full scale healthcare reform is not there.

Administration officials and Republican leadership have moved on to tax reform (https://waysandmeans.house.gov/joint-statement-tax-reform/), and a coordinated effort to make the case to the American public will soon be underway. We can expect the fall to be all about tax reform, and CDA will be heavily engaged in the debate on your behalf.