Senate Republicans will try to advance a stalled healthcare reform bill next week while the House takes up the first group of fiscal 2018 spending bills, funding for a southern border wall and a measure to roll back an Obama-era banking rule.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hopes to hold a vote next week on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the Republican-authored proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare. Because several moderate and conservative GOP holdouts are refusing to sign on to the bill, McConnell is threatening a politically unattractive alternative: a vote on simply repealing Obamacare, which most of the GOP supported in 2015 when a veto was assured from former President Barack Obama. Several Republican lawmakers are unsure about a plain repeal now.

"We are going to vote on whether to proceed to the bill," Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Thursday. "I know people are fixated on what bill to proceed on, but every senator can offer amendments to change the bill, so it really is irrelevant. This is strictly about whether we are going to start the debate. People can offer amendments so we can finish at some point."

The House, which passed its own healthcare bill and is waiting for the Senate to act, will deal with fiscal 2018 appropriations legislation.

Next week is scheduled to be the final House legislative session before a planned five-week recess, but Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he would call lawmakers back to Washington to consider a Senate-passed healthcare bill if one passed in the upper chamber. The Senate is scheduled to be in session until Aug. 11.

In the meantime, House lawmakers will vote on the Make America Secure"appropriations act, a measure that combines the fiscal 2018 spending bills for defense, energy and water, the legislative branch, military construction and veterans affairs.

It's a bill that Democrats are vowing to oppose despite the inclusion of a 2.4 percent pay increase for military personnel and a boost in funding for the U.S. Capitol Police.

Republicans plan to use a procedural maneuver to attach an additional $1.6 billion for President Trump's desired southern border wall, which he repeatedly promised during his 2016 campaign.

"Yes, we are taking action," McCarthy said last week. "Just as we said we would do."

Democrats do not support the wall funding. They also accuse the GOP of bringing up spending bills that will never become law because Democratic approval will be needed to get through the Senate.

"Instead of wasting floor time on a smoke-and-mirrors appropriations package that will do nothing to improve our security, the majority should immediately begin working with Democrats on a new budget agreement," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The House also plans to revive a procedure it has used more than a dozen times this year to reverse executive branch regulations. Republican leaders plan to vote on the repeal of a banking regulation under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to undo certain executive branch actions with simple majorities in both chambers.

The targeted regulation was imposed in July by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is led by Obama appointee Richard Cordray. The regulation ends mandatory arbitration for consumers in legal fights with the banks, making it easier for individuals to sue.

The House vote aims to undo the new rule. Republicans say the regulation will force financial institutions to pay for costly class-action suits that benefit only trial lawyers, not consumers, who they say can collect more in arbitration than in court.

Democrats plan to oppose the bill.

"House Republicans are continuing their assault on the financial security of the American people by trying to deny consumers their right to go to court when wronged by a financial institution," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Another key fight next week will be on whether to revoke the current authorization for the use of military force by the president. The House spending bill initially included a provision revoking that authority, which would have required Congress to take politically treacherous vote on a new war powers act.

However, Republican leaders used a procedural maneuver to strip it out of the bill and hid the move in the rule governing debate on the spending bill. The move angered Democrats who are likely to raise the issue during debate next week.

"The Republican Congress is subverting the legislative process and abdicating its solemn constitutional responsibility to debate and authorize the Trump administration's use of force," Pelosi said.

Instead of voting to eliminate the war powers authority, Republicans will instead hold a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday on terrorism that will examine "grave threats and authorities that empower our men and women in uniform to carry out important missions that help keep us safe."

Originally posted here:

Next week: Healthcare, border wall and a fight over war powers - Washington Examiner