VA reform tops House agenda next week

The House’s last week in session before the August recess will feature debate on bills reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs and the regulatory process.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced from the floor Thursday afternoon that the House will vote on a measure authorizing the VA secretary to fire or demote employees based on poor performance or misconduct, as well as a bill that would require Congress to approve all new major regulations.

The only other major item on lawmakers’ plate next week will be legislation to maintain the Highway Trust Fund before funding expires at the end of the month. The House passed a five-month extension last week; the Senate is still plowing through its version.

{mosads}Both House Republicans and Democrats are objecting to the Senate bill in part because only three of the six years of transportation policy it authorizes are offset. Republicans further oppose the possibility of the Senate attaching an extension of the Export-Import Bank’s charter, which expired on June 30.

“I think the best bit of advice is continue to urge the Senate to accept our bill,” McCarthy said.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) asked McCarthy, as he has on previous occasions during their weekly floor colloquies, if the House would vote to renew the Export-Import Bank.

“I think you may have asked this question more times than we actually repealed ObamaCare,” McCarthy joked before stating, as he has responded to Hoyer in the past, that no vote regarding the Export-Import bank is scheduled.

The House has voted about 60 times since 2011 to repeal or undermine the healthcare law. 

“I could not possibly stand on this floor long enough to do that,” Hoyer laughed. “I keep asking that question, and I keep getting the wrong answer.”