Healthcare

The House next week plans to continue its effort to repeal elements of last year's healthcare law, this time by repealing language establishing a federal public health fund.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday is scheduled to approve a rule for H.R. 1217, the Repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) Act. The bill repeals the PPHF, which funds prevention and public health programs in an effort to slow the rate of growth of healthcare costs.

In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated $500 million to states for these activities, and just last month, HHS announced another $750 million allocation.

Congress this week successfully repealed a controversial IRS reporting requirement by passing so-called 1099 repeal. And the House next week might also take up H.R. 3, which would prevent federal funding for abortions. The House was scheduled to begin work on that bill this week.

The House Rules Committee has postponed Thursday's planned markup of a rule for H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act."

The committee has not announced when it might take up the bill. Approval of a rule Thursday was expected to lead to a vote as early as next week, but that schedule has likely been overtaken by the ongoing budget negotiations.

The House Rules Committee will meet on Thursday to approve a rule for considering H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act."

While controversial, the bill is co-sponsored by more than half of all House members (220) and would likely be approved if brought up for a vote.

Approval of a rule by the Committee often means that rule is considered on the House floor shortly thereafter. But it is for now unclear whether the House would take up the bill on Friday, given the uncertainties of whether Congress will be able to approve any funding bill this week.

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) on Tuesday morning warned that the failure of the Senate to pass a clean version of his amendment to repeal controversial IRS reporting language would put Congress at risk of never passing it, and letting it take effect next year to the detriment of US companies.

"Today we have a simple choice," Johanns said on the Senate floor. "We can pass my amendment with strong bipartisan support and demonstrate we have the 60 votes necessary for the House version, or we can pass the second-degree amendment to push this repeal off into limbo, into Never Never Land yet again."

Voting for the second-degree amendment would make it different from the House version, and thus harder to pass. "Eventually we are going to flirt with disaster on this, and it won't get done," Johanns warned.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said on Monday that she hopes the Senate can approve language this week to repeal the controversial IRS reporting language in last year's healthcare bill. But Senate passage might only end up adding to the confusion over how so-called "1099 repeal" will finally happen, as the House and Senate keep passing different versions.

The 1099 language in the healthcare bill requires companies and other entities to report goods and services transactions valued at $600 or more to the IRS, and both parties have said they want to eliminate this requirement. Landrieu said Monday that the 1099 language from Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) could be approved either as an amendment to a small business bill, S. 493, or as a stand-alone measure.

"There's fairly across the board support on both sides of the aisle for that repeal, and I hope that we can get that done sometime this week as well, either specifically attached to this bill, or parallel to this effort," she said on the Senate floor.

A Republican bill that would ban federally funded abortion has been gaining co-sponsorship in recent weeks and could be on track for floor consideration in the months ahead.

By mid-March, the bill had the co-sponsorship of more than half the House — 221 co-sponsors, or 220 when subtracting Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.), who resigned in February after the Craigslist scandal. Most sponsors are Republicans, but nine Democrats are also sponsors: Dan Boren (D-Okla.), Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), Mark Critz (D-Pa.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

The House Judiciary Committee already marked up and reported the bill on March 3, and in doing so rejected a series of Democratic amendments. The committee reported the bill to the House last Thursday, setting it up for possible consideration.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday his panel would take up legislation to combat counterfeiting in response to a “60 Minutes” probe that found tens of thousands of fake prescription pills enter the U.S. each year.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said his legislation would give the Justice Department better tools to combat the sale of counterfeit drugs.

The House Tuesday night approved two non-controversial health bills under a suspension of House rules.

By a 401-12 vote, the House approved H.R. 570, which would make dental health a component of the national health security strategy. All 12 "no" votes came from Republicans.

By a 280-138 vote, the House also approved H.R. 525, which aims to increase the number of people in veterinary health services. While this measure passed relatively easily, more than 130 Republicans voted against it, and less than 100 Republicans supported it.

With these votes, the House finished its legislative business on Tuesday, and will return Wednesday to take up two bills that would terminate federal mortgage assistance programs. The House is expected to take up the rules to these two bills in the afternoon, as it will meet in a joint session with the Senate at 11 a.m. Wednesday to receive Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The House convened briefly at 2 p.m., heard three five minute speeches, then adjourned until 4 p.m., when it will take up two non-controversial bills. The first, H.R. 525, aims to increase the number of people in veterinary health services, and the second, H.R. 570, would make dental health a component of the national health security strategy.

Off the floor, House and Senate leaders continue to argue over how to fund FY 2011 spending. The Senate is expected to hold at least one vote Tuesday afternoon on H.R. 1, the House-passed spending bill. But Senate votes are seen as a prelude to more negotiations.

House leaders in contrast, are already doing some work on another short-term bill in case an agreement for the rest of FY 2011 cannot be reached by March 18.

The House on Monday approved a controversial bill that would repeal two IRS reporting requirements, after three hours of tense debate in which Democrats said the Republican bill would raise taxes on middle-class Americans.

The bill, H.R. 4, was approved in a 314-112 vote. Every Republican and 76 Democrats supported the bill, which would eliminate language establishing IRS reporting requirements for companies and property owners on transactions valued at $600 or more.