An iffy health care vote. An unresolved budget resolution. A heavy debt ceiling lift. And, of course, there is that tax overhaul plan.
Congress has a lot to do, and it doesn’t have much time. So much for a lazy July in Washington.
When members of Congress return next week from their Fourth of July break, they will be greeted by a mammoth legislative logjam. Republicans are increasingly skeptical that they can get everything done. There are even calls from some to forgo their sacred August recess — a respite from the capital in its swampiest month.
The first order of business when lawmakers return remains reaching a swift conclusion to the debate over how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, an ambition that has bedeviled Republicans since Mr. Trump entered the White House. The grappling over how to proceed has laid bare deep divisions within the party and stalled progress for the next items on the agenda, a federal budget deal and a tax overhaul. A vote on health care could drag on until mid-July or later depending on when Senate Republicans deliver a new bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring.
“They have to separate the things they have to do from the things they would like to do,” said Rohit Kumar, a tax expert at the accounting firm PwC and former deputy chief of staff to Mr. McConnell. “If health care doesn’t happen before August recess, then health care is done.”
Reference: New York Times
Read More: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/
Thai
Eng