CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for articles on the Senate health care bill, budget and spending work in progress, House efforts to gut financial regulations, and a $15 minimum wage bill.
Click here for the full PDF of the Human Needs Report.

Senate GOP Push Their Health Care Bill this Month
A group of Senate Republicans continue working on their version of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Reports are that they may try to bring their legislation to the Senate floor for a vote the week of June 26 in the hopes of passing it before the week-long July 4 recess. The Senate GOP bill is expected to be very similar to the House-passed repeal bill; Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters that “80 percent of what the House did we’re likely to do.” READ MORE »

FY18 Budget Season Offers Different Visions for America
It’s budget season in Congress. CHN provides a breakdown of the different budget proposals introduced so far and those still in the works, including the House and Senate GOP budgets, President Trump’s budget, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget. While President Trump released his administration’s FY18 budget proposal nearly three weeks ago on May 23, House and Senate leaders have not yet followed suit. That may change soon, as the House GOP budget could be released and taken up in the House Budget Committee as soon as the week of June 19 with possible floor action as soon as the following week. READ MORE »

FY18 Appropriators Process Begins
The House Appropriations Committee announced its first markup of an FY18 spending bill for Monday, June 12, kicking off appropriations season. House GOP appropriators are considering moving an FY18 omnibus, or catchall spending package, that would incorporate the 12 spending bills required to keep the government open after the new fiscal year begins on October 1. But passage of an omnibus before the August recess may prove difficult to achieve, as appropriators are still waiting for the topline spending allocations for each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees covering the many different departments in the federal government. READ MORE »

Congress Urged to Pass Clean Debt Ceiling Increase
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is calling on Congress to increase the debt limit before the August recess. Unlike White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who has previously said he would like to see spending cuts attached to an increase in the debt ceiling, Secretary Mnuchin has urged Congress to pass a “clean” increase, without tying the measure to new spending cuts or other ideological policy changes. READ MORE »

$15 Minimum Wage Bill Introduced
On May 25, the Raise the Wage Act of 2017 was introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN). The bill (H.R. 15/S. 1242) would raise the federal minimum wage to $9.25 this year and increase it over the next seven years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024. The bill would also phase out the outdated subminimum wage for tipped workers, workers with disabilities, and workers under the age of 20. READ MORE »

House GOP Passes Bill to Gut Financial Regulations and Consumer Protections
On June 8, the House passed a bill that would largely gut the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, the banking legislation passed in 2010 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The Financial CHOICE Act would strip away regulations on banks and Wall Street that were put in place to protect consumers, investors, and the economy from risky lending and investment practices that could bring on another recession. In addition, the bill would take away independent funding from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created under Dodd-Frank, and subject it to the annual appropriations process, meaning Congress could slash or even defund the consumer watchdog agency. READ MORE »

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