This week, the House is expected to consider seven bills, ranging from small airplane safety to healthcare reform.
Items under consideration this week include:
H.R. 2576: extends for two years the deadline for the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to begin making public the technical standards incorporated into agency regulations. The bill also eliminates a requirement for this information to be publicly released if it is incorporated in agency guidance and a requirement that the technical standards be posted on the Internet.
Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013 (H.R. 1848): directs the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to streamline regulations in the general aviation industry in order to advance the safety of small airplanes.
H.R. 2611: Designates the new Coast Guard headquarters building on the campus located at 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, in the District of Columbia, as the “Douglas Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building.” Douglas Albert Munro was the only member of the U.S. Coast Guard to have received the Medal of Honor.
H.R. 2667: delays for one year the requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees provide health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty. The Obama administration has already announced it will delay enforcement of the employer mandate until the beginning of 2015.
H.R. 2668: delays until January 2015 the requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
H.R. 5: reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for fiscal years 2014 through 2019 and makes changes to many of its programs, including removing its adequate yearly progress (AYP) standards, revising the academic standards that states must set for their schools, and allowing the mingling of different funding streams in Title I for different targeted groups of students. The measure also eliminates more than 70 existing elementary and secondary school education programs.
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014 (H.R. 2397): allocates funding for Fiscal Year 2014 to the Department of Defense for the operation and maintenance of all branches of the military. The bill appropriates $512.5 billion in non-war discretionary spending, $5.1 billion less than the FY 2013 pre-sequester level, and $3.4 billion below the president’s request. The amount, however, is $28.1 billion more than the Pentagon’s current funding level, which reflects the automatic “sequestration” spending cuts made in FY 2013. The measure also includes $85.8 billion in contingency funds to support operations in Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.