U.S. Senate May Vote on Healthcare as Early as Tomorrow
After months of debating and planning, the Senate majority leader is expected to take up the House-approved bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act as early as tomorrow. Though the House bill is not likely to pass the Senate, if Senator Mitch McConnell can reach the 50 votes needed to begin debate on the House bill, he can move to repeal ACA without a replacement – an amendment that would be unlikely to pass, though being suggested by a handful of Republican lawmakers. If the amendment fails, Senator McConnell could move to replace the House-approved bill with the version developed by a group 13 Republican senators – all men – tasked with making the GOP’s plan to repeal ACA more palatable, not just to the public, but to their colleagues. The repeal effort would be considered as a budgetary item, which limits debate, prohibits a filibuster, and will allow its passage with a simple majority vote. As of now, the Senate appears to be short of the votes. With 52 of the Senate’s 100 members being Republicans, Senator McConnell can only afford to lose two votes – one if Senator John McCain, who announced last week that he was diagnosed with brain cancer, is absent.
California Budget & Policy Center Begins Series Examining the Feasibility of Single-Payer Healthcare
In the first post of a new series, the California Budget & Policy Center provided an excellent analysis of a prospective single-payer healthcare system in California. In light of SB 562 (Lara and Atkins), the single-payer bill that was approved by the Senate and stalled in the Assembly, their analysis also provides a thoughtful overview of the challenges that resulted in the bill’s demise.
STEM Trained Candidates Seeking Public Office in Age of Trump
With the help of a new nonprofit political action committee called 314 Action, many scientists are considering a run for public office. As the Trump administration and Republican-led congress propose numerous cuts to science programs across the country, the “lab coat liberals,” as they’ve been called, are seeking to fight back by running for local, state, and federal offices. Going from scientist to politician, groups of STEM trained candidates are running with a commitment to protect research funding and pledge to aggressively advocate for evidence-based policy in areas where scientific evidence is disputed. Read more about the movement here.
California Legislature Adjourns for Summer Recess
State lawmakers officially adjourned for the summer on Friday. They will reconvene on August 21, when they will begin the final stretch of this legislative-year, which ends on September 15.