The House this week will kick off the second session of the 114th Congress by bringing up the Planned Parenthood-defunding/Obamacare-repeal bill and legislation to repeal regulations and to make class-action lawsuits harder to bring.

Planned Parenthood and the ACA

The House will be voting on the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act (H.R. 3762), legislation that seeks to dismantle the 2010 health care reform law known as Obamacare (but legally known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA).

The Senate passed the bill with a simple majority vote of 52 to 47 on December 3 through a special process called “reconciliation” that could not be filibustered, sending it back to the House. President Obama has promised to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

Regulatory Reforms

The House is also slated to vote on the SCRUB Act (H.R. 1155), which would establish a commission to review existing federal regulations and identify those that should be repealed, with the goal of reducing the cost of regulations on the economy. The bill also would direct agencies to review all regulations within 10 years.

“My mission with the SCRUB Act is to require a full evaluation of all 175,000-plus pages of the Federal Register and identify outdated and ineffective regulations for removal,” explained Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who introduced the bill last February. “This streamlining will lessen regulatory burdens on small businesses and give them the freedom to innovate and grow.”

Class Action Lawsuits

Also this week, the House is scheduled to take up the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act (H.R. 1927), which aims to reform the current federal class action lawsuit framework by requiring uninjured parties to be part of separate class action suits than those parties experiencing more extensive injuries.

According to data from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, enactment of H.R. 1927 could reduce the number of class action suits filed and the number of plaintiffs in them, but could also increase the administrative burden on the courts.

“Only those people who share injuries of the same type and extent should be part of a class action lawsuit,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) when introducing the bill on April 22. “I was proud to help move the Class Action Fairness Act through Congress ten years ago, and today I am introducing this legislation to supplement the protections afforded to victims in class actions, and further reduce wasteful litigation in our courts.”