The Senate Jan. 3 introduced a Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget resolution, which includes instructions to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Senate voted along party-lines, 51-48, to begin debating the FY 2017 budget resolution. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the lone Republican to vote against the budget resolution due to his concerns that the budget resolution fails to address the growing deficit and debt.
The Senate’s budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions for the ACA’s committees of jurisdiction: the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees, as well as the Senate Finance and HELP committees. The budget resolution instructs those committees to produce legislation to repeal the ACA by Jan. 27.
Senators the week of Jan. 9 are expected to begin considering amendments, leading up to a so-called vote-a-rama in which Senators vote on dozens of amendments oftentimes through the early morning hours.
While the president is not required to sign a budget resolution, House and Senate leaders have suggested that they would like to have the FY 2017 budget resolution adopted by both chambers before President-elect Trump takes office.