Much of the action yesterday in Congress revolved around the passage of Trade Promotion Authority in the House. Yet TPA was not the only big legislation moving around this week. In this article we talk about the other stuff Congress did, and did not do, these past few days.

The Big Stuff

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate yesterday with a comfortable vote of 71–25. Yet authorization only represents half of the defense budget. In distributing funding Congress has two main types of legislation. Authorization, to decide where money will be spent and, appropriations to decide how much. The Department of Defense Appropriations Act would supply this budget, but since Congress could not end debate on the bill they cannot vote on the bill itself. The vote to end debate failed to reach the three-fifths threshold, with almost all Republicans voting for it and Democrats voting against. It required 60 votes to pass.

Senators and presidential candidates Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) were the only two Republicans to vote against the NDAA. In a press release about the bill, Cruz said:

“I made a promise when I was elected to office that I would not vote for an NDAA that continued to allow the President to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by indefinitely detaining them without due process.”

Cruz was referring to section 1021 of the 2012 NDAA which affirmed that the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists granted the President the ability to indefinitely detain suspects of terrorism, including United States citizens.

The Small Stuff

The Protect Medical Innovation Act of 2015 was passed with a vote of 280–140 in the House. All opposing votes were Democratic, yet 46 Democrats voted for the bill. You can find a summary below.

Four bills were passed by the House and one by the Senate: in the House, the Increasing Regulatory Fairness Act, the Medicare Advantage Coverage Transparency Act, the Securing Seniors Health Care Act, the VBID for Better Care Act, and in the Senate the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization. None of these bills had a recorded vote. You can find summaries of first two bills below.

Reported by Committee

Homeland Security appropriations, S.1619, and authorization, S. 1635, and the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, S. 697, which would reauthorize and amend the Toxic Substances Control Act, were reported by committee in the Senate.

The appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, H.R. 2822, was reported to the House.

Resolutions

H.Con.Res. 55, directing the president to remove United States Armed Forces deployed to Iraq and Syria on or after April 7, 2014, was rejected by a vote of 139–288. Support for the resolution was primarily Democratic, yet 66 Democrats still voted against it.

Summaries

The Protect Medical Innovation Act would repeal the tax on medical devices created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The medical device excise tax is payed by medical manufacturers. The revenue generated from the tax is used to fund the ACA. Bill sponsor Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN3) issued a press release on the bill, in which he criticized the tax for making production more difficult for medical manufacturers. Proponents of the bill have argued since the ACA has caused an increased demand for health insurance, it has also caused an increased demand for medical devices, which benefits manufacturers enough to offset the tax. The bill has 241 Republican and 41 Democratic cosponsors. It passed the House on June 18.

The Increasing Regulatory Fairness Act would extend the time between the draft notice and final notice for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services publication on payment rates and changes. Currently there is a 45 day period in which Congress may review the draft and a 15 day period to comment on proposed changes. The bill would extend these times to from 45 to 60 and from 15 to 30. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA5) spoke on behalf of the bill. It was passed by voice vote in the House.

The Medicare Advantage Coverage Transparency Act of 2015 would require the Department of Health and Human Services to report to Congress on the enrollment data for Medicare Advantage plans. This data would include the location of enrolled individuals, the plans they were receiving, and other related information. The bill has been passed by voice vote in the House.