On Dec. 4, come to the 40th Anniversary Midwest Academy Awards. Click here to buy tickets – to honor Rep. John Lewis, Eliseo Medina, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, and Jenn Brown.
Obama Readies Obamacare Enrollment Drive
WH plans Obamacare push. Politico: "[Today] the president will host a White House event kicking off a three-week drive to refocus the public on the law’s benefits ... emphasizing a different benefit each day until the Dec. 23 enrollment deadline for Jan. 1 coverage ... Now that the website appears to be mostly functional, the West Wing thinks it has the ability to return to sales mode."
Big website demand yesterday. The Hill: ".... the site [was] on pace to hit about 800,000 visitors on Monday, which is close to the maximum daily number that officials believe the system can handle at this point ... The Obama administration said it would report November enrollment figures in mid-December and that it expects the number of enrollees to spike because of the website repairs and a surge in enrollments in the state-run exchanges."
Administration making progress on back-end data bugs. W. Post: "On Monday, Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for CMS, recommended that insurance seekers who choose a health plan through the site contact the insurer afterward to make certain they are actually enrolled ... Bataille said that about 80 percent of the errors with 834 forms — the enrollment data — stemmed from 'one bug that prevented a Social Security number from being included. That caused the system not to generate an 834.' 'That bug has now been fixed and [that part] is now working properly,' Bataille said..."
But more legal challenges in the pipeline. NYT: "A federal judge in the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments on Tuesday [if] the law does not grant the Internal Revenue Service authority to provide tax credits or subsidies to people who buy insurance through the federal exchange ... On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge brought by Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, to the 'employer mandate,' ... In another challenge, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative group, has filed suit claiming that the law is unconstitutional because it was introduced in the Senate, not the House, where tax bills must originate. The law has also spawned a separate raft of religious freedom cases over its requirement that employers provide insurance coverage for contraception to their workers."
Who enrolls more important than how many. AP: "...officials now say they are no longer as concerned about the overall number. They say the insurance exchanges will succeed regardless of the total, as long as about one-third of those who sign up are healthy in order to offset the cost of those with more expensive health problems."
Small Budget Deal At Hand
Congress nears budget deal. Politico: "The two congressional budget leaders — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) — are considering a plan that would give relief to some of the domestic and defense programs most burdened by the sequester through 2015 by replacing those cuts with budgetary savings in other areas ... New revenue through fee increases — not tax hikes — is likely ... Under one proposal still under consideration, overall discretionary spending levels would be set in the $1 trillion range for 2014, sources say. That’s an uptick from the $967 billion spending level under the Budget Control Act but lower than the $1.058 trillion level initially sought by Senate Democrats ... the increase in spending would be split about evenly between defense and nondefense spending ..."
Continued gridlock would lead to suffering ... but so could bipartisanship. McClatchy: "An estimated 1.3 million Americans will lose federal emergency unemployment benefits after Christmas if the program is not renewed ... Congress' failure to renew a multiyear farm bill - considered crucial to the agricultural industry - poses a two-pronged problem. Without action, milk prices are set to skyrocket in the new year because the legislation plays a role in how some commodities are priced. It could drive the price of a gallon of milk above $8 ... But if Congress does reach agreement, that would almost certainly result in cuts to food stamps ..."
Some Republicans brag about doing nothing. NYT: "The House straggled back to the Capitol on Monday night with just two weeks left before its likely entry into the Congressional record book for underachievement ... 'I ran on a government that did less,' said Representative Reid Ribble, Republican of Wisconsin. 'I felt the government was overreaching, and the citizens that sent me didn’t want me to be overaggressive in writing new laws.' ... The 113th Congress has passed all of 55 laws so far this year, seven fewer at this point than the 112th Congress — the least productive Congress ever ... Even final agreement on a waterways-construction bill, which passed both houses of Congress overwhelmingly and has no money attached to it, appears to have slipped from reach this year."
Volcker Rule Almost Done
Volcker Rule close to final. Bloomberg: "At least three U.S. regulators will meet on Dec. 10 to adopt the final version of the Volcker rule banning banks from making speculative bets with their own money ... Two other agencies that need to approve the rule -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission -- are trying to arrange Dec. 10 votes as well ... CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler raised objections that a recent draft of the rule wasn’t strong enough, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. If the regulators resolve such issues by next week, the rule would be on track to meet a self-imposed year-end deadline."
CFPB to expand jurisdiction over student lenders. US News: "Certain nonbank student loan servicers that handle millions of accounts will now be regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a rule issued Tuesday that allows the federal agency to supervise the companies' actions. While the bureau is already able to supervise banks that service student loans, such as Wells Fargo, it has been unable to ensure that large private companies such as Sallie Mae and others (Great Lakes, Inc. and American Education Services), which together manage millions of borrower accounts, are held to the same consumer protection standards."
Dems Keep Up Immigration Pressure
Dems keep up pressure for immigration reform, praise fasters. The Hill: "Activists who are fasting to draw attention to the need for immigration reform appeared in the House chamber late Monday evening, drawing cheers from Democrats as they voted. The immigration fasters appeared in between two votes, prompting House Democrats to look up and cheer their arrival. Republicans largely ignored them..."
Gov. Christie claims he's not flip-flopping. W. Post: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) forcefully denied Monday that he has switched positions on in-state tuition for young illegal immigrants, saying he continues to support the idea but won't sign the specific bill passed by the state legislature ... Christie said during his 2013 reelection campaign that he supported the concept of the legislation, commonly known as the Dream Act. He wound up winning 51 percent of the Latino vote ... the state's largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, accused Christie of flip-flopping on the issue because he wants to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2016."
Climate Regs To Be "Flexible"
Upcoming EPA carbon emissions standards will be "flexible." The Hill: "'EPA next June will propose new standards that will also provide significant flexibility to the states that will protect public health from carbon pollution from existing power plants,' [EPA Administrator Gina] McCarthy said on Monday at the liberal Center for American Progress event. 'That will give opportunities to reduce power plant emissions.' McCarthy said the agency would be 'really flexible on the implementation of these standards' with states."
EPA chief heading to China today to talk climate reports The Hill.
