January 13, 2017
"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln
Chairman's Note: The First Step on the Road to Real Health Care Reform
This Thursday at about 1:30 pm, the United States Senate took the first step on the road to real health care reform: repealing Obamacare.
By a 51-48 margin, the Senate approved a budget resolution that instructs the relevant committees in the House and Senate to produce a bill by January 27 that will repeal Obamacare. Once that bill has been drafted, it can then be passed through both the House and Senate by simple majorities before it is signed into law by President Trump.
As big a victory as that will be – fulfilling a campaign promise that virtually every Republican has been making for the past six years – our work will only have just begun.
Although our nation’s health care system was far from perfect before the misnamed Affordable Care Act became law, it only got worse under the weight of Obamacare. So, it will take time to undo the damage Obamacare has caused and develop common-sense, consensus policies that actually improve our health care system. But the schedule included in this week’s budget resolution gives us the time – and the deadlines – we need to craft these fixes.
Many congressional Democrats do not want an Obamacare repeal effort to succeed, so they are spreading false stories to scare up opposition to Republicans’ reform plans.
They claim that repealing the floundering Affordable Care Act would immediately throw low-income families off Medicaid or raise insurance premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. This is nonsense.
Just as it took years for Obamacare to be implemented, it will take years for it to be undone. The repeal bill that passed the Senate and House last year included a two-year window for the existing Obamacare infrastructure to stay in place, during which time the architecture for a new system could be installed. The repeal bill that will come at the end of this month will look much the same.
What we do not want to do is repeat the same mistake that Democrats made in 2010: use a secretive process, driven by wealthy political insiders, to craft a multi-thousand-page bill that few people have read and even fewer understand, and then ram it through Congress on partisan lines.
Instead, we should develop a series of smaller, more targeted bills designed to increase the quality of health care while bringing down the costs, by removing unnecessary and harmful federal regulations and mandates. We should unbundle health insurance and health care by making it easier for Americans to buy catastrophic health insurance and use Health Savings Accounts. We should block grant Medicaid funding to the states so that they can tailor the program to the specific needs of their diverse populations.
All of this can be done separately, one policy change at a time. And we may well get some Democrats to help us.
But before we can make these reforms, before we can make affordable and high-quality health care available to all Americans, first we have to repeal Obamacare. And after this week, we are one step closer to accomplishing that.
Issue in Focus: Elections Have Consequences for Housing Policy
“Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.” These were the infamous words President Obama used to scold congressional Republicans just three days after his inauguration in 2009, foreshadowing how he would approach policymaking for the next eight years.
Rather than listening to and trying to work with Republicans, President Obama governed through brute force – with his “pen and phone” more often than with the consent of Congress – guided by the dictates of his progressive ideology rather than the interests of the American people. In virtually every policy area – from health care and immigration to the deployment of American troops and the accession to new international treaties – President Obama ignored those who dared to dissent from his agenda and used whatever means necessary to accomplish his goals.
The result is a precarious legacy burdened by a host of deeply unpopular and highly controversial policies, many of which can be repealed, replaced, rolled back, and otherwise reformed by the new Republican majorities in Congress. But Republicans should take care to avoid adopting the same high-handed, condescending governing style exhibited by President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress.
Instead of ignoring the concerns and preferences of the American people – and their elected officials at the state and local level– we should listen to and learn from them. Rather than forcing diverse communities to abide by inflexible, burdensome rules and regulations devised by federal bureaucrats in Washington, we should empower local decision-makers to find solutions that address the unique needs of their families, neighborhoods, and businesses.
One of the areas of federal policy most in need of local empowerment is housing.
For instance, in 2015 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which requires cities and towns across the country to audit their local housing policies. If any aspect of a community’s housing and demographic patterns fails to meet HUD’s expansive definition of “fair housing” under AFFH, the local government must submit a plan to reorganize the community’s housing practices according to the preferences and priorities of HUD’s bureaucrats. Failure to comply will result in HUD withholding Community Development Block Grants, federal grant money that local officials have traditionally been free to use as they see fit.
Proponents of AFFH claim the rule establishes a collaborative process, with local government officials in the driver’s seat while the bureaucrats at HUD merely provide “support” and “guidance.” But the track record of AFFH proves the opposite.
Many local housing officials from across the country, including in Utah, have told the same story: the costs of complying with AFFH stretch their already-thin resources, add hundreds of hours of bureaucratic paperwork to their workloads, and eliminate their autonomy to determine the best ways to provide adequate low-cost housing to their community.
To provide some measure of relief to local Public Housing Authorities, a group of Republicans in Congress has supported legislation to restrict HUD from using federal funds to implement the AFFH rule. The Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act is the latest iteration of this legislation, which I joined Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to introduce this week.
For the past 18 months, with President Obama holding the executive veto pen and unwilling to believe that his policies are unpopular, there was very little chance this bill would be signed into law. But on January 20, when President-elect Trump is sworn into office, that will change, and I will do everything in my power to ensure its swift passage. After all, elections have consequences
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Sens. Lee, Klobuchar Comment on FTC Chair Departure
WASHINGTON – Today, Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, released the following statements on Edith Ramirez’s departure from the Federal Trade Commission.
“I thank Chairwoman Ramirez for her service,” Said Senator Lee, “but with her departure, the Federal Trade Commission will be left with only two commissioners. Since this is an agency that was meant to operate with five commissioners I expect the next president to nominate new commissioners shortly, and I hope the Senate will confirm them swiftly.”
“Chairwoman Ramirez demonstrated a real commitment to the Federal Trade Commission’s mission. She obtained a $10 billion settlement for consumers defrauded by Volkswagen, her agency litigated as many as eight antitrust cases simultaneously, and she exemplified the best qualities of a public servant,” said Senator Klobuchar.
Chairwoman Ramirez is expected to step down next month.
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Lee Introduces Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act
WASHINGTON – Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) released the following statement Thursday after introducing the “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act,” a bill which denies all federal funding for implementing the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Final Rule.”
“Every American should be free to choose where to live, and every community should be free to zone its neighborhoods and compete for new residents according to its distinct values,” Lee said. “We don’t need a National Zoning Board. Washington should let Americans ‘govern local.’”
“A better debate would be about how Americans could better spend the money that is wasted every year by the dysfunctional Community Development Block Grant Program,” Lee added.
A study by the Reason Foundation found examples showing how this program contributes to cronyism by channeling taxpayer dollars to politically connected groups while doing absolutely nothing to combat poverty or housing segregation.
The Local Zoning Decisions Act would restrict any federal funding from being used to implement, administer, or enforce HUD’s housing rule. The bill also prohibits any funds from being used for HUD’s “Fair Housing” database which could be used to further the administration’s radical pursuit of using “disparate impact theory” to punish communities that are not as demographically diverse as the administration would like.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has introduced a companion bill in the House. An electronic version of this release can be found here.
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Sens. Lee, Cassiday, Carper, Johnson, and Booker Reintroduce the Modernizing Government Travel Act
WASHINGTON - Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) reintroduced the Modernizing Government Travel Act on Tuesday. The bill would direct the General Services Administration to make it easier for government employees to save taxpayers money by using innovative modes of travel while on official government business.
“Millions of Americans have saved themselves time and money by using new innovative travel services such as Uber, Lyft, and bikeshare,” Sen. Lee said, “but current federal travel reimbursement regulations have made it difficult for federal employees to use these new technologies while on the job. This bill would require the GSA to clarify the availability of these options so our federal employees can increase efficiency and decrease costs.”
“It makes sense for government employees to use the same services as everyday people and it will save the taxpayers dollars,” said Dr. Cassidy.
“Services like Lyft and Uber have improved the ways that millions of Americans get around, but, until recently, the federal government hasn’t been able to take advantage of these newer, sometimes more cost-effective options,” said Sen. Carper. “This legislation will help our government keep pace with the innovative technologies that drive our lives. By modernizing the way that federal employees travel, this commonsense and bipartisan bill will make the operations of government more efficient, while also ensuring that we are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
“This legislation helps drive federal agencies into the modern era,” said Sen. Johnson. “All across the country, people are using car services such as Uber and Lyft to get where they need to go conveniently and affordably. Many Americans are even supplementing their current income by driving for these companies. I’m proud to cosponsor this legislation, which will provide an option for federal employees to take Uber or Lyft when they’re on official business, saving taxpayer money.”
“Government should be keeping better pace with innovations in the sharing economy, especially when it saves taxpayer dollars.” Said Sen. Booker. “This bill will enable the federal government to modernize its travel policies for federal employees, increase efficiency, and save money.”
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