How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted
Here is how Arkansas’ U.S. senators and U.S. representatives voted on major roll call votes during the week that ended Friday. HOUSE
Ban on ‘junk insurance’
health plans. Approved 224-184, blocking a Democratic attempt to call up a bill (HR 6479) designed to gird the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) against a new order by President Donald Trump that would circumvent many of the law’s core provisions. The bill would effectively prohibit a revival of health insurance plans that do not meet the health care act requirements, such as coverage of pre-existing conditions and “essential health benefits” including maternity and pediatric care. The Trump administration would allow the sale of non-ACA-compliant “association” and “short-term” policies to small businesses and self-employed individuals apart from the 2010 health law. Calling Trump’s order a return to pre-Obamacare “junk insurance,” critics say it would siphon young, healthy individuals out of the diversified insurance pool needed to hold down premium costs and stabilize health care act marketplaces. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said: “President Obama told me I had a junk insurance plan and that I was going to get something better. I didn’t get something better” than the previous plan “which had covered every medical contingency that had occurred in my family’s life for a number of years” for a lower premium.
Sponsor Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said this bill is needed because “instead of protecting the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, this Congress is sitting idly by as this administration once again allows insurance companies to sell junk plans that don’t even cover basic health care services.” A yes vote was in opposition to taking the bill to the floor. Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R)
Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)
Expansion of health savings accounts. Passed 277-142, a bill (HR6199) that would add payments for fitness-center fees and over-the-counter drugs to the list of medical expenses reimbursable from tax-advantaged health savings accounts. In 2018, participants can make tax-free contributions of up to $3,450 as individuals and $6,900 as couples to a health savings account and use the account to pay qualified medical expenses with pre-tax dollars. Unspent balances are carried forward each year. By law, such accounts must be linked to high-deductible health plans. But under this bill, they could be opened in tandem with plans having deductibles as low as $250 for individuals and $500 for families. Because the bill is not paid for, it is projected to add several billion dollars to the national debt each year.
In addition, the bill would loosen the rules for tax-advantaged flexible spending accounts, which individuals who have health plans at work can use to pay certain out-ofpocket medical expenses, co-pays and deductibles.
Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said the bill “will allow those Americans with health savings accounts to use those accounts to pay for over-the-counter medications, the practice which existed up until the Democrats took away that ability in the Affordable Care Act.” Norma Torres, D-Calif., said the bill “only benefits [the] 6 percent of Americans” who have health savings accounts, “not the 14 percent who lack health care insurance at all.We must help those who are falling further and further behind while this Congress buries us in debt.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Repeal of medical-device tax. Passed 283-132, a bill (HR184) that would repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax levied by the Affordable Care Act on manufacturers and importers of medical devices used by hospitals and doctors, from CT scanners to surgical tools. Because the repeal is not paid for, the bill is projected to add more than $20 billion to the federal debt through fiscal 2028. The purpose of the levy is to help pay the cost of premium subsidies in Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Backers say it is fair to tax an industry that has reaped new profits from the law’s expansion of health care to millions of Americans. But critics say the tax dampens innovation and costs jobs in the medical-devices industry. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said the bill amounts to “billions of dollars in unpaid tax cuts on top of the $2.3 trillion this Congress has already passed into law, all with borrowed money. Republicans are using the deficit, which they keep making larger, to justify the deep cuts they plan to make to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.”
Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., said: “Usually the government puts an excise tax on things we want to discourage, like tobacco, alcohol or gas-guzzling automobiles. Why would we want to discourage medical innovation? Only in Washington would you impose a tax on lifesaving medical devices and then think you are going to help reduce health care costs.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Broader access to catastrophic plans. Passed 242-176, a bill (HR6311) that would expand access to the Affordable Care Act’s catastrophic, or “copper,” health plans. Under the care act, these low-premium plans with high deductibles can be bought inside or outside of marketplaces by people 30 or younger and older people deemed hardship cases. Copper plans provide all of the Affordable Care Act’s “essential health benefits,” prohibit premium subsidies and require deductibles as high as $7,350 for individuals in 2018. In part, the bill would allow health savings accounts to be used to purchase copper plans, make the plans available to senior citizens on Medicare Part A and allow tax credits to be used to subsidize their premiums.
Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said: “It is important that we continue to address the negative impact that the Affordable Care Act has had on the individual market and to help Americans across the country be more in charge of their health care purchases.”
Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., said the bill continues a GOP dismantlement of the Affordable Care Act in which “4 million fewer Americans have health insurance than when Donald John Trump took office and health care costs continue to rise unabated.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
U.S. pushback on election
attacks. Approved 226-183, blocking a Democratic attempt to call up for debate a bill (HR6494) imposing economic sanctions on any country, individual or other entity found to have interfered with a U.S. federal election in 2015 or any later year. Offending parties could be denied entry to the United States and face financial penalties including denial of access to U.S. markets and a freeze on U.S.-based assets. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said “the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin underscores the need for this legislation. Time and again, [President Trump] refuses to acknowledge the unanimous conclusion of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was a threat and directly interfered with our 2016 elections.” Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., said: “It was under the previous administration that Russia meddled in our elections, not under this administration. It was under the previous administration that Russia illegally seized Crimea. It was under the previous administration that we refused to arm the Ukrainians.”
A yes vote was in opposition to allowing debate on the Democratic bill.
Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
$717 billion for military in
2019. Approved 359-54, the conference report on a bill (HR5515) that would authorize a $717 billion military budget for fiscal 2019, including $69 billion for war in Afghanistan, Iraq and other overseas theaters; and $57 billion for active-duty and retiree health care. The bill would lift a ban on the development of sea-launched low-yield nuclear weapons, set a 2.6 percent pay raise for uniformed personnel and fund programs for military victims of sexual assault. The bill sets an active-duty strength of nearly 1.33 million troops (485,741 Army, 331,900 Navy, 325,720 Air Force and 186,100 Marine Corps.)
A yes vote was to adopt the conference report. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Medicare solvency vs.
GOP tax cuts. Defeated 187-229, a Democratic attempt to delay a GOP-sponsored health care bill (HR6311, above) until Congress scales back a 2017 package of corporate and individual tax cuts projected to increase annual deficits by at least $1 trillion over 10 years. Pending GOP budget plans cite the exploding national debt to justify spending restraints on programs including Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. The underlying bill would add $50 billion to federal debt over 10 years by steps such as doubling maximum annual contributions to tax-advantaged health savings accounts. In addition, the bill would allow senior citizens to participate in these private accounts while they are enrolled in Medicare Part A.
Lois Frankel, D-Fla., said the 2017 tax law “for the benefit of corporations and billionaires has shortchanged the longevity of the fund that pays for the health care of 58 million seniors. It is called Medicare, a program that celebrates its 53rd year anniversary this month, a system that seniors have spent a lifetime paying into.”
Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said the Medicare funding “crisis” predates the Republican tax cuts and “has been going on for decades.” A yes vote was to adopt the motion. Crawford (R)
Hill (R)
Womack (R) Westerman (R)
Robert Wilkie, secretary of
Veterans Affairs. Confirmed 86-9, Robert L. Wilkie, 55, to head the 360,000-employee Department of Veterans Affairs. Wilkie served most recently as acting secretary of veterans affairs, and before that he held Senate staff positions and was an assistant defense secretary in the George W. Bush administration. He serves in the Air Force Reserve. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wilkie “has built a reputation as a thoughtful analyst and a skilled manager” in a long government career.
Jon Tester, D-Mont., said pressing issues facing Wilkie include the need to deliver health care more promptly, hasten disability appeals and reduce “workforce shortages. We need more doctors and nurses and more psychiatrics and psychologists within the VA.” No senator spoke against nominee.
A yes vote was to confirm Wilkie as the nation’s 10th secretary of Veterans Affairs.
John Boozman (R)
Tom Cotton (R)
Refusal to cut 2019 spending
bill. Defeated 25-75, an amendment that sought to inflict an 11.4 percent across-the-board cut in a bill (HR6147) still in debate that would appropriate $58.7 billion for the fiscal 2019 budgets of the Treasury and Interior departments and numerous agencies including the Environmental Protection Administration. Sponsor Rand Paul, R-Ky., said his amendment is needed because “our national debt now exceeds $22 trillion. We are borrowing about $1 million a minute” and many authorities “have said the greatest threat to our national security is actually our debt.” Susan Collins, R-Maine, called the amendment an “indiscriminate, meat-ax cut in important programs [that] would violate the bipartisan agreement we just reached earlier this year.” A yes vote was to adopt the amendment. Boozman (R)
Cotton (R) — VOTERAMA IN CONGRESS