Thursday: Health board repeal in the House; JOBS, STOCK acts in the Senate

The House meets at 10 a.m., and will immediately take up H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act.

The House debated the bill for nearly six full hours on Wednesday, finishing up at about 8:45 p.m. The only work left is to consider up to six amendments, after which members will pass the bill by the early afternoon.

The bill repeals the 2010 healthcare law's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), something many Democrats support because they fear the IPAB could recommend Medicare cuts without congressional input. But the bill also imposes medical tort reform, among other things limiting punitive damages in medical law suits nationwide.

The Senate returns at 9:30 a.m., and by 12:30 p.m. is expected to hold a series of votes that will likely result in passage of the House-passed Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, and the House-passed Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

Senate Democrats appear to have given up on the effort to significantly amend the JOBS Act, which would ease capital formation rules for small companies. However, two last Democratic amendments will be attempted — one to ensure that federal watchdogs are helping people who participate in "crowdfunding" investing, and one to require "fair and honest disclosure" from companies that raise money from small investors.

The Senate also has scheduled a cloture motion to concur to the House version of the STOCK Act. Like the Senate version, the House bill clarifies that members of Congress cannot use non-public information to make stock trades, but it removes Senate language that would have required political intelligence advisers to register as lobbyists.

The Senate is also expected to approve three of President Obama's judicial nominees for New York, Utah and the District of Columbia.

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