health care mandate
President Donald Trump waves as he walks with Sen. John Barasso (R-Wy.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as he arrives to lobby Republicans at their weekly policy luncheon on Capitol Hill. Nov. 28, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress want to pass a tax bill by the end of 2017. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin, leaving little room for defections in the face of Democratic opposition. Here is a list of Republicans whose votes are pivotal to the bill's fate.
Demonstrators protest requirement that employers provide insurance coverage for contraception.TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
The nation’s Catholic bishops say the Obama administration’s proposed revisions to a mandate that requires insurers to provide birth control coverage are still unacceptable and even “radically flawed" -- signaling a long drawn-out election-year fight between the White House and the Catholic hierarchy.
The bishops also say that they will continue to try to overturn the contraception regulations in Congress and the courts even as the bishops carry on negotiations with the White House.
The critical judgments on the government proposals, which were published by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services on March 16, are contained in an internal, two-page March 29 memo from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The memo’s contents were first reported Tuesday (April 3) by Catholic News Service.