Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have proposed attaching an amendment to the bill that would force Republicans to admit whether they think man made climate change is a real thing. The "sense of Congress" amendment, introduced by Bernie Sanders, reads that climate change is real, caused by humans, causing damage, and needs to be fought with new energy sources.
The House has passed three bills limiting Obamacare in the new Congress, including a controversial attempt to change the law's 30-hour work week to a 40-hour work week. Obama has promised to veto the bill if it makes it through the Senate.
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Under the health care law's employer mandate, companies with 50 employees or more must provide insurance who work 30 hours or more. Republicans argue that the 30-hour limit is pushing employers to cut hours on part time workers, while Democrats argue that raising the bar to 40 hours a week would expose more workers to cuts.
Senator Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, also introduced a bill repeal Obamacare. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, tweeted:
On Wednesday the House also passed a bill that would delay the implementation of a rule forcing banks to offload their "collateralized loan obligations" (risky investments) by next year. Though the Federal Reserve already delayed the rule until 2017, the bill passed by the House—and opposed by most Democrats, and a lone Republican—would delay the rule until 2019.
Democrats argue that the CLOs are similar to the risky investments that led to the last financial collapse. Republicans, along with a few Democratic allies, and Wall Street lobbyists, argue that the investments help businesses "obtain financing during a sluggish economic recovery," The Hill reported.
Republicans and Obama agree on trade, passing a resolution to fight the Islamic State and reforming the tax code, though nothing official has been introduced. But on the subject of cyber security, Obama plans to introduce his proposal for a new bill that would, among other things, allow businesses to share information with Homeland Security, during his State of the Union address next week.
"With the Sony attack that took place, with the Twitter account that was hacked by Islamist jihadist sympathizers yesterday, it just goes to show much more work we need to do both public and private sector to strengthen our cybersecurity," Obama said Tuesday, referring to the hacking of the U.S. Central Command's Twitter account.
The Guardian noted that privacy groups are already challenging the proposal, on the grounds that information sharing is available under current laws and the new proposal may allow near real-time sharing between Homeland Security and the NSA, FBI or secret service. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, is on board. "Recent events certainly underscore the need, again, to tackle cybersecurity," he said. Given that Democrats don't support a trade deal and tax reform is a huge project, this tiny area of agreement will have to do for now.
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