Sunday, October 06, 2013

Weekend Update

The Defense Department is calling back most of its furloughed workers based on a law that Congress passed last Monday. According to a Federal News Radio report,
The administration's interpretation of the law will allow "most" of DoD's 350,000 currently-furloughed civilians to return to work. Officials were not able to give a precise count of how many would be left sidelined, but Robert Hale, the Pentagon's comptroller told reporters Saturday evening that he believed more than 90 percent of the overall civilian workforce would be back on duty and earning pay by next week. 
That represents over 3/8's of the total furloughed workforce. The House also agreed yesterday to give backpay to the furloughed employees.  The Washington Post reports that the Senate is expected to approve this bill and the President will sign it. According to CNN and Modern Healthcare reports, a repeal of the ACA's 2.3% medical device tax is attracting bipartisan attention.  Perhaps not the beginning of the end but at least the end of the beginning to paraphrase Winston Churchill.

Also because tomorrow is the first Monday in October, the U.S. Supreme Court's new term will begin. The Wall Street Journal reports that the new term will begin with significant business law cases. The article concludes
Among the more intriguing possibilities is a dispute over the federal health-care law. U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has asked the court to decide whether corporations can assert religious rights to object to a provision that requires employers to include health-plan coverage for contraception. Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the issue.
 The ACA is the gift that keeps on giving to lawyers, including the FEHBlog.

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